Column: The T doesn't stop here

The T is shifting gears and Boston College students are definitely going to notice the difference, and not necessarily in a good way.

In the past week, transportation officials announced the elimination of four stops along the B line's Commonwealth Avenue route and the eradication of the Night Owl bus service.

Since Wednesday, the T no longer stops to let passengers on or off at Greycliff Road, Mount Hood Road, Summit Avenue, and Fordham Road. The removal of the Greycliff Road stop probably affects BC students the most.

The Greycliff residence hall houses about 43 students plus two RAs. Although they constitute only a miniscule percentage of the BC population, it is bad enough that students who live there are banished to this off campus "hall" but now their options of trekking back to campus are being limited.

It's only about one-tenth of a mile from Greycliff to the BC end of the B line, but that extra tenth can make the difference between making it to class on time or not.

There is always the BC shuttle though, which I want to commend for being reliable, frequent, and easily accessible.

Officials claim that deleting the four stops will shave approximately three or four minutes off the 45-minute trip from BC downtown to Government Center. Big whoop. Four whole minutes! I'm unimpressed.

Although 73 percent of riders polled voted in favor of eliminating the stops, I'm sure that those who rely on the stops are annoyed.

Is getting rid of the stops and irritating a handful of loyal T riders really worth the three or four minutes saved by doing so? It's hard to tell.

What if four more stops were eliminated and a total of eight minutes could be taken off the trip downtown? Would it be worth it then?

Can there be any happy medium between eliminating stops without angering too many customers and still saving a worthwhile number of minutes?

The Mount Hood Road stop is another that could affect BC students. Those who live in apartments beyond Chiswick Road do not have access to the BC shuttle, which turns around between Chiswick and Wallingford Roads. The T is their only hope for making it to campus and now some of them are without a stop.

Financially, the T is in a bit of trouble. The revenue that comes in from riders, who each pay $1.25 per ride, only covers about 30 percent of the T's operation costs; 20 percent of Massachusetts sales tax revenue is allocated to the T to help alleviate those costs. It still seems, however, that the T is increasingly broke.

As part of the effort to solve its financial crisis, the MBTA is planning to raise the cost of parking at some suburban T stations by 50 cents. As of now, this cost is only $2.50, which seems pretty cheap when you can pay upwards of $8 an hour to park in downtown lots or garages.

In an effort to further cut down on costs, the T announced last week that as of July 1, the Night Owl bus service will be no more.

Officials cite the expensive cost of running the service and the program's unpopularity as reasons for getting rid of it, but part of the problem is bad advertising.

My friends and I go barhopping downtown at least once a week and in my four years at BC I have never once utilized the Night Owl. I could not even tell you where its downtown stops are or even if it comes all the way out to BC. Even so, it's too bad that the T is saying goodbye to the Owl.

After increasing the fare by 25 percent last year and now the slashing of Night Owl, how much more can riders take?

Officials say that there will be no more fare hikes for at least another year, but at some point the madness has to stop.