THE LEGISLATURE approved new fees on Uber and Lyft rides Wednesday morning and required the companies to provide much more detailed information on rideshare drivers and their work activities. The current state fee per ride is 20 cents, but the legislation increases that amount to 40 cents for shared rides, $1.20 for non-shared rides, and […]
Transportation
Posted inTransportation
House, Senate finish by moving finish line
WITH SOME LEGISLATIVE sleight of hand, the House and Senate extended their sessions from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning and succeeded in passing most of the major pieces of legislation still pending on Beacon Hill. A trimmed down transportation bond bill, an economic development bill without sports betting, legislation dealing with college campus sexual violence, […]
Posted inTransportation
Economic development, transpo bills coming down to wire
A FAR-REACHING climate change bill that could affect almost every facet of daily life whisked through both branches of the Legislature on Monday and landed on the governor’s desk, but time is running out for economic development and transportation bills that have been stuck in conference committees for close to six months. Key lawmakers said […]
Posted inOpinion
We cannot be passive actors in COVID recovery
WELCOME TO 2021, the post-pandemic year, the year of recovery and restoration and of reclamation, when we take back the routines so abruptly removed from our lives. Welcome to a season of hope, more hopeful than perhaps it ought to be, a time when patience and persistence will count more than impetuousness and reckless abandon. […]
Posted inTransportation
‘Santa Baby’ with a transpo twist
Listen to the TransitMatters singers by clicking below. The lyrics, courtesy of Jim Aloisi (with apologies to Javits & Springer), can be also be found below. Santa baby, just slip a Charlie Card under the tree for me Been an awful year Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight. […]
Posted inTransportation
Reduced commuter rail schedule extended until Jan. 8
KEOLIS COMMUTER Services said on Wednesday that it plans to continue providing roughly half of its regular weekday service until January 8 because of staff absences caused by COVID-19. Keolis originally planned to offer the lower service levels from December 14 until December 27, but announced on Wednesday that it is pushing back the date […]
Posted inTransportation
Mass., Conn., RI, DC sign transportation climate pact
MASSACHUSETTS, CONNECTICUT, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia signed on to a pact Monday to put a price on the carbon contained in vehicle fuels sold within their borders and leverage the revenues gained and the resulting higher price of gasoline to cut transportation emissions 26 percent by 2032. The group of initial participants […]
Posted inTransportation
T board members clarify fare, service votes
SOME MEMBERS of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board on Wednesday sought to clarify a couple of controversial votes on fares and short-term service levels that they took at the end of a lengthy meeting earlier this week. Both votes were on amendments to a sweeping proposal to reduce service levels at the T […]
Posted inTransportation
T board scales back service cuts, takes swipe at Beacon Hill
THE MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board approved a series of scaled-back service cuts on Monday and then, in an apparent swipe at Beacon Hill, voted not to raise fares on bus and subway riders until service hours and ridership on those transportation modes return to pre-COVID levels. Brian Lang, a member of the control […]
Posted inOpinion
Same old plan won’t work at the MBTA
IN EARLY NOVEMBER, the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board and T General Manager Steve Poftak released a new plan, called Forging Ahead, to deal with the catastrophic drop in ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At last Monday’s meeting of the control board, T officials indicated they were considering not going ahead with that […]