0629 Should the government reform the subway in Boston?

Governor Schwarzenegger said,“ we have already laid the groundwork for high-speed rail in California and with a boost from our federal partners, nearly 40 million Californians and millions of travelers from around the world will be able to experience the reality of America’s first high-speed rail system.” While California government has planned to build a high-speed rail to improve its transportation, Boston authority is still using the slow, old, and unreliable subway system. Based on three reasons, I strongly recommended that Boston government has to reform the subway.

First of all, a slow subway system will limit the development of a city. Once the city has a faster subway system, the commuters will be able to save time, so that they will have more time to improve their lives. They could spend more time on their work out, family, or friends instead of time on the traffic. With a faster subway system, commuters are more willing to live in the suburban areas, where the price of the houses is cheaper, the houses are bigger. Instead of sticking in the traffic to downtown, commuters can take subway as a matter of fact it is a faster transportation.

In addition, everyone has noticed that Boston desperately needs a more reliable subway system after some serious subway accidents happened in the past few years. According to the investigations, some accidents resulted from the human errors, which can be prevented by the advanced technology for the subway systems. By installing safety deceives will increase people’s confidence on the subway system. Take Taiwan as an example, it has a more than one hundred history in Taiwanese rail system, and it has more than five major accidents every year, and people lost confidence of it. About eight years age, Taiwanese government made this rail institution to install the safety devices. After the installation was finished, the accidents rate has dropped sharply.

Finally, the reform bill is not a problem. It is difficult for government to spend a lot of money to reform transportation, especially in the period of economic crisis. However, there are several ways to solve this problem. Government can use BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) form to alleviate the government finance. Around the world, there were many successful examples of transportation constructions which used BOT form. Moreover, if the subway system has become faster and more reliable, fare increases will be accepted by Boston citizens.

In conclusion, it is necessary to reform the subway in Boston. The improvement of transportation will help the city develop and make subway more reliable. Moreover, the finance of this construction has the way to solve, so the Boston government should reform subway as soon as possible. As the former Taiwanese president, Chiang Ching-kuo said, “If we do not do it today, we will regret tomorrow.”