SILVER LINING

Okay. So some smart alecks may already know this:

As of June 1, people will be able to take the red line to South Station and hop on a silver line bus to Logan International Airport. This is no scam. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority’s Alan Castaline said yesterday at a Cambridge business association meeting that the cost of the bus ride will be covered by the money paid to get on the red line.

This is an improvement for those who get to Logan by taking the red line to Downtown Crossing to get on the orange line to State to get on the blue line to Airport.

It’s an improvement if, of course, one can stand to ride the much-loathed silver line and if the silver line makes it to the airport without being stopped in traffic, something known to happen even to buses as fancy as these. This looks like a better and better gamble, though, as MBTA debt decreases train maintenance and increases breakdowns and delays.

Slowly but surely, the agency is making the silver line look pretty good, if only by making its trains entirely unreliable. Clever.