To the editor:

Here they go again. The economic-political powers that be are contemplating something that is the exact opposite of what the future will require: Cut back service in public transportation. There’s lots of talk about how much it costs, of how it does not pay for itself. I suggest you look up “service” in your Funk & Wagnalls. (Never mind, I will do it for you: assistance or benefit afforded another : a useful result of labor that is not a tangible commodity : a system : used to accomplish some accommodation for the public.) The T is not a business and cannot be run as one with the expectation it will break even, much less turn a profit. (Do public highways, airports, railroad tracks, navigable rivers, libraries, fire departments or police?)

For those worried about inefficiency, I would like to report the results of an unscientific census I took the other day standing in front of City Hall at evening rush hour. I counted the people in the first 20 vehicles that came by. The total (including drivers): 20. Is this what they want to palm off on us as an example of efficiency?

Philip Kimball,

Lawrence