popular thinking

Trying to figure out the MBTA's Silver Line? You're not alone. Over the past 18 months, this South End resident has experienced both the highs and the lows of the bus line that masquerades as rapid transit. Thing is, though, you don't need to wait 18 months to develop a strong love and hate for the T's bastard child. Just give it a couple of hours, as I did on Friday on my return home from vacation.

The first trip, wonderful. Beginning at Logan Airport just after 5 p.m., I hopped on the Silver Line bus, which whisked us through the tolls and the neverending tunnel construction to Southie, then packed every square inch remaining with working commuters for the final tunnel trip to South Station. A couple of minutes later, the Red Line zipped up a stop to Downtown Crossing, where I picked up a transfer, found two Silver Line buses waiting, and minutes later, I found myself dropped off two blocks from home. All for $1.25. No traffic. No hassles. Rush hour and Logan are great reasons to rely on the Silver Line.

But after rush hour ends, the Silver Line loses its grasp on reality (and reliability). Those digital red messages that say Buses Arrive Every Six to Nine Minutes, or Seven to Ten Minutes? Don't believe them. After 7 p.m., it seems as though those Silver Line messages are merely suggestions. More likely though, you can wait almost a half-hour for a bus, only to find THREE buses roll up at once. If you average those three buses, you'd get your supposed 10-minute wait. How does that happen? More accurately, WHY does that happen? Why still? And then when you get on the bus, you find something's not working. The bus won't accept dollar bills. The bus won't accept your Charlie Card. Or it will, and then you're in line for minutes waiting for it to accept everyone's cards. Or, in the most obscene case I've seen recently, the driver said the machine wouldn't process subway transfers (when that does work, just watch and time how long that process can slow down the Silver Line) so he was handing out the old transfer slips -- which, naturally, don't work in the newly converted Charlie Card T stations like Boylston, Chinatown and Downtown Crossing, so you have to flag down a T worker and show them the flimsy transfer you have, and then you put on a sheepish look as if it was your fault. Which only reminds me of the Green Line and the frustration of having a Charlie Card that doesn't work and won't work and since you no longer have any tokens on you, you're SOL and the T conductor looks at you as if it was your fault. But I've gotten on a bit of a tangential rant here. Sorry. Argh!

And yet, I still use the Silver Line more often than not. As the weather gets colder and wetter, I'll ride it. I just won't always be happy about it.