So, our colleagues at the State House News Service have reported a new study by MassInc indicates that working poor and working class residents find that mass transit options are not affordable to them.

Michael Norton reported, “The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth [MassInc] report urges policymakers to make a more equitable commuter rail fare framework ‘priority number one,’ describing a shift away from strict distance-based fares as vital to ensuring that future development in gateway cities, mostly located far from Boston, produces equitable outcomes and does not displace low-income households.

“In many Massachusetts cities, low-income riders are effectively priced out of using commuter rail, unable to afford, for instance, the $12.25 fare for a one-way ride to Boston from Worcester. The $4,600 per year expense associated with that fare is 10 percent of the median household income in Worcester.”

The report is only concerned with the mass transit needs of residents in the eastern Massachusetts Gateway Cities. The Gateway Cities here include Westfield, Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke.

While I understand MassInc was focusing on MBTA ticket prices as compared to income in Gateway Cities, it underscores two truths: there is a crisis in transportation in the Commonwealth and it adversely affects the working class and the focus of the solutions is in the eastern part of the state.

If you are working class or working poor here and rely on public transit that means you ride the PVTA, the largest Regional Transit Authority outside of Boston and the MBTA.

It is an organization for years that has asked for better funding. Unfortunately in too many years a lack of funding has resulted in the increase in ticket prices and a decrease in service. Neither of those actions are “solutions;” instead they are simply fiscal reactions.

I don’t mean to beat a dead horse here, but the truth is an effective and efficient mass transit infrastructure is as important to eastern Massachusetts as it is to Western Massachusetts. The fact that there are more people living there does not diminish the needs of people here.

While state officials ponder the MassInc study and consider the cost of commuting, they better take seriously issues out here in the hinterlands. Fund the PVTA properly and take seriously the issue of commuter rail.

Bad message

Dear MassDot,

While driving on I-291 the other day I noticed one of the safety messages someone in your organization places on the huge message boards that are over the highway.

This one was referring to what college students should have in their rooms: a smoke detector and a safety plan. The concluding remark to this message was those two things would be ”the best roommates forevah!”

What in the name of all that is holy – did someone think we have that Boston accent out here? We say “forever” wit the “r.” And do you honestly think college students would ever pay attention to such a message?

And to be clear, we don’t say “wicked” as an all-purpose adjective – ever.

Those who do here are either refugees from the eastern section of the state or pathetic Western Massachusetts people trying to blend in with folks from the east.

Have some regional pride, people.

There are parts of New England that have maintained a regional accent. You can hear them in Vermont, Maine and the greater Boston area. I personally love regional accents and colloquial language.

Yet, I draw a big fat wide line between what folks in Boston sound like and what we sound like. Folks in Western Massachusetts do not have a regional accent.

So, like so many other aspects of life in the Bay State, there is a huge disconnect about accents between east and west.