I think I might be the biggest proponent of public mass transit. I grew up in a suburb of NYC and was exposed to the city and able to work there because of fast, efficient, and effective public transportation. Everyone where I lived knew that taking a train into the city was smarter than taking a car. It was faster most of the time, comfortable, you could sleep, and just more relaxing. I have taken commuter rail on a few occasions here in Massachusetts and I have had anything but that experience. For lack of better terms the MBTA Commuter Rail is disgusting most of the time.

It starts on the platform. Usually the platform is gross and a lot of the time you have to climb up onto the train. Try taking a train from Back Bay station to Worchester and you will see what I mean. Then you get in the car and it smells bad, the lighting is horrible, and the seats are uncomfortable. I don't think anyone can relax in such a setting. To be honest, the time I took the train to Worchester -- I would have rather been in a car in the back seat feeling sick because I think the train was worse. The temperature is not right and the train is stop and start the entire trip. There is just something wrong with this. The public transportation is not serving its purpose and something needs to be done about it. The MBTA and the regulators on the state level are not fulfilling there responsibility.

Then I read this in the Globe this past weekend:

An MBTA commuter rail rider wrote this week to say that even on the few cool mornings last week, it was so hot aboard some trains that passengers felt faint. And it's only June.

``By afternoon these trains are literally hell on
wheels," wrote Carol of Ipswich, who switched to the Haverhill line in the middle of last week and found more of the same.

``It is early in the summer, and if the heat continues, some pregnant woman or senior citizen is going to collapse," she wrote. ``Has the T made any mention of resolving this dangerous situation?"

This is just not good. Something really needs to be done about these conditions so that more people use public mass transit. It is a good deal for everyone -- for the environment -- and for your pocket if it is done right.