Riders To MBTA: Give Us Good Service, Not Color Choices

BOSTON (CBS) - Give the MBTA credit for trying.

With riders still traumatized over last winter's total T collapse, the new authority leadership is eager to repair the shredded bond with their customers any way they can as they frantically work to avert another fiasco this coming winter. So today the authority announced an online poll to choose exterior designs for spiffy new Green Line, Orange Line and Red Line trains due to arrive in, respectively, 2017, 2018 and 2019, "in recognition of how important our customers are," said MassDOT Secretary Stephanie Pollack in a press release.

"There has been a significant drop off in faith in the system," MBTA Advisory Board Executive Director Paul Regan tells WBZ. And while he applauds the T's outreach on the train color scheme, he observes that "I think we need to have a week go by without a major meltdown on any of the systems people rely on."

Ditto, say riders we spoke with outside the Boylston Street station.

"I think it's basically worthless," says one man of the color-scheme outreach. "Does anyone think that makes a difference?"

"I could care less about the colors," adds a woman. "If you can get me from point A to point B in the time I need to do it, that's what matters to me."

"They really need to work on reliability over making it more presentable," notes another man.

And the final word went to a woman who shrugged off the color choices and said: "Honestly, the train could be purple and I'd be fine as long as it works right."