MBTA travel is about to get easier for disabled

Sue Reinert
April 6, 2006

The Patriot Ledger Joanne Daniels-Finegold often coped with broken MBTA elevators and bus lifts when she tried to travel by wheelchair from her Braintree home.

Now, thanks to a groundbreaking court settlement that she helped negotiate, she and other people with disabilities can look forward to easier mass-transit trips.

"When (the promises of the agreement) are accomplished, it will allow you to plan your life," Daniels-Finegold said yesterday.

The public transit authority agreed to spend more than $310 million to upgrade station elevators, platforms, buses and other facilities and equipment to improve accessibility for disabled riders.

Under the settlement of a class-action lawsuit announced Monday, the authority also will create the position of assistant general manager for accessibility, and train transit workers with the help of disabled riders.

Daniels-Finegold was the lead plaintiff in the 2002 suit filed against the MBTA by the Boston Center for Independent Living and 17 disabled riders. Another plaintiff was Andrew Forman of Plymouth, who is blind.

The federal suit described a litany of delays and other hardships caused by unreliable equipment and sometimes-callous MBTA employees.

For example, Daniels-Finegold got stuck at South Station when she tried to take a commuter train to a trade show in Providence on Sept. 29, 2002.

The MBTA's recorded telephone line said the South Station elevators were working, but when she arrived at the station, the elevator from the middle level to the commuter-rail level was out of service, the suit said.

Daniels-Finegold "was forced to return home," the suit said.

A longtime advocate for herself and others, Daniels-Finegold helped prepare the lawsuit and now sits on the board of directors of Greater Boston Legal Services, which represented the plaintiffs.



She said lawyers for the disabled started making progress after Daniel Grabauskas took over as general manager of the T in May.

Grabauskas soon began pressuring the T's elevator contractor, Kone Inc., to "do the maintenance they should have done," Daniels-Finegold said.

"It's been a long time since I encountered a broken elevator," she said. "People are cleaning them, and they're working."

Grabauskas praised the agreement in a statement on Monday.

"Certainly for 20 to 30 percent of our customers at the MBTA, we are an essential component in their ability to live their life, enjoy their lives, go to work, go to a movie and to get there in a reliable fashion," he said. "Therefore, it merits a substantial investment."

Grabauskas said the plan sets a precedent as the first court-enforceable accessibility overhaul agreement to be jointly and amicably negotiated by a transit authority and disability advocates.

"This is a real prescription with a mandate," said William Henning, director of the Boston Center for Independent Living.

Henning said he was elated about the agreement.

If the settlement is approved by U.S. District Judge Morris E. Lasker in June, progress will be assessed by undercover monitors and a court-appointed overseer, who will report to Lasker.

Daniels-Finegold hopes the changes will come quickly. Just Tuesday night, she said, "a bus that I was taking at Quincy Center had a broken lift." Material from the Associated Press is included in this story. Sue Reinert may be reached at sreinert@ledger.com.