Computer system, policies contribute to T’s problems

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/30/mbta-fiscal-control-board-face-questions-from-legislature/vIJWSvOGROvrNPNSz5TgTI/story.html



More than two thirds of the subway trips and bus trips that were canceled by the T between January and August were scratched because no driver was available.

Computer system, policies contribute to T’s problems
By Nicole Dungca Globe Staff
September 30, 2015

The MBTA has such an outdated computer system that it has been unable to provide the board that oversees it with a list of job classifications, a member of the board that oversees the T told the Legislature on Wednesday.

The five-person fiscal control board, which tasked with overhauling the MBTA, has already made public a litany of financial and management problems facing the T. On Wednesday, control board member Brian Lang added antiquated technology and personnel policies to the list.

Board members and state transportation officials testified before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation about the board’s recently released report, which painted a bleak picture of the T.

Lang, the president of the UNITE HERE Local 26 hotel and food service workers union, said the T suffered from a dysfunctional system that often made it difficult to fill vacant jobs.