Boston man ‘breaks up’ with the T

One Boston man is breaking up with the T and he wants everyone to know it.

Tory Bullock of Mission Hill is an actor and artist known for posting comedic Facebook videos that address race and social issues, is taking on the city’s transit system in his latest video, “The Breakup,” which has stacked almost 12,000 views since it was posted at 6 p.m. Sunday.

After growing up in Boston, Bullock feels like he can’t trust the T anymore. His video opens with him sitting at the Health Street station on the Green Linehesitant to board the waiting trolley.

“I don’t want to get on right now. You know why I don’t know why I don’t want to get on? Because I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get off,” he says.

“Have you seen the video footage? It’s all types of craziness it’s out of control,” Bullock says, cutting to a clip of people jumping out the windows of an Orange Line train a Back Bay station on Oct. 26.

Bullock alludes to recent improvements by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, but said it’s not enough to convince him to ride.

“Yeah T, you look good. You cleaned yourself up a little bit. I like what you did with your Green Line. It looks really good now, but I’m not going to get on you. I’m not going to trust you because it’s not that kind of relationship,” he says in the video.

The T is known as America’s first subway and served as a blueprint for other underground transit systems in New York City, Philadelphia and beyond.

“You were the first, you were the original,” Bullock says. “Now all these years later, they’re better than you are at being you.”

As fares continue to rise, service keeps getting worse. Bullock remembers the days when he could ride for $1.25.

Bullock gives the wrong fare price in the video, saying it costs $3.70 to ride. The actual cost is $2.75. He corrected himself in his Facebook post.

But his point still rings true.

“Your prices are skyrocketing and your service is steadily getting worse and worse and even more dangerous,” Bullock says, at the end of the almost four-minute video.

“Why don’t you just get out of here. Leave girl. I don’t need you. Just go,” he adds.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said about $3.7 billion over the next five years will be put toward track, and signals, trains, buses, facilities and bridges.

“[These are] projects that will make the system safer and more reliable,” he said.

But in the interim, Bullock has a call to action for his viewers.

“Let’s start the conversation. How do you feel about the T?” he asks.

Bullock has made about a dozen videos like his “breakup” with the T over the past two years, focusing on social justice issues and encouraging people to connect.

“I’m talking about things that everyone is thinking, but just saying it in my own voice,” he said.

Some of Bullock’s vidoes have clocked views into the hundreds of thousands, which he said is all the inspiration he needs to keep going.

“I’m just putting stuff out there and people are looking at it and realizing, ‘wow, I have a voice,'” he said.