![]() “We have taken Foster to court already for his attempts to cut service. The consumer winds up paying more money for less service.” Smith now seemed glum, slumped back in his chair. Inefficient management has taken over again. “By now the old-line T bureaucracy has reasserted itself. ![]() But Foster hadn’t been in more than a few days before the attacks on Kiley’s people began. “His attitude toward the Advisory Board was very positive. “Kiley brought in a whole new management team with a modern orientation,” Smith said. Smith thinks the MBTA suffered an important loss when Foster dispatched Kiley. He did achieve this goal, and in tribute, transit workers burned his effigy. It is normal politics for a new governor to put in his own man at the T, but the removal of Kiley was especially precipitate because ( a) transit workers played a key role in King’s victory over Dukakis in the Democratic Party primary, and ( b) these workers hated Kiley for his efforts to institute binding arbitration, something they saw as limiting the union’s power. ![]() Forty-five minutes after Governor King was installed in January, 1979, he fired Kiley as his first official act and appointed Foster in his place. Smith is a great admirer of Robert Kiley, Kevin White’s former deputy mayor, who was made chairman of the T by Governor Michael Dukakis. Its political structure, where the mayors control the budget and the governor controls administration, makes it even worse.” The physical structure of the T makes it impossible to run it right. There is no equipment compatibility among the four lines. The T runs seven different kinds of vehicles. “The MBTA subway system is the oldest in the country, and every time they have added to it, the technology has changed. “You’ve heard it a million times,” Smith said.
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