Tracking Transportation

Keeping track of transportation

How to improve T service during shutdowns

Three suggestions for rider-friendly alternative service

By Ari Ofsevit MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Jan 18, 2020

ONCE AGAIN, the MBTA’s floating slab project has reared its ugly head. If it seems like this project has been going on forever, it’s because it has. The first weekend shutdowns to replace the concrete which holds the tracks together took place in 2011. Over the past decade, one might assume that the MBTA would(...)

Senate leaders ‘getting close’ on transportation bill

Working group, after Spilka pep talk, discusses goals and resources

By Bruce Mohl Massachusetts Legislature, Transportation 0 Comments Jan 15, 2020

SENATE LEADERS INDICATED on Wednesday that they are getting close to unveiling a transportation policy bill, and there were indications they are starting to look at various revenue measures. The Senate’s transportation working group, a body of senators, advocates, and analysts that has been meeting on and off since last spring, held a 90-minute private(...)

T notes: Control board calls for fewer meetings

New Orange Line cars returning to service

By Bruce Mohl MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Jan 13, 2020

THE MBTA’s FISCAL AND MANAGEMENT CONTROL BOARD on Monday tweaked its recommendation for the makeup of a new T oversight board once the existing panel goes out of existence at the end of June. In its annual report, the control board adopted two recommendations put forward by an outside panel brought in to review safety(...)

T $25m behind on contract pledge to union

Gonneville: No good reasons for bus maintenance spending lag

By Bruce Mohl MBTA 0 Comments Jan 13, 2020

TOP MBTA OFFICIALS acknowledged on Monday that they have failed to comply with a key provision in a union contract requiring the transit authority to spend $25 million a year upgrading its badly deteriorated bus maintenance facilities. T officials initially included $24 million spent on a seawall outside the Charlestown bus maintenance facility in the(...)

Straus says TCI is getting in the way

‘The governor’s approach is not working’

By Bruce Mohl Taxes and Budget Issues, Transportation 0 Comments Jan 10, 2020

THE HOUSE’S LEADER on transportation issues raised concerns on Friday that the transportation and climate initiative being pushed by Gov. Charlie Baker is sputtering, and may be getting in the way of the Legislature’s upcoming debate over new revenues. The transportation climate initiative, also known as TCI, sets a cap on transportation emissions in the(...)

TCI club appears to be shrinking

Governors of Vermont, Connecticut raising concerns

By Matt Murphy Climate change, Transportation 0 Comments Jan 9, 2020

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN A PROTEST-INTERRUPTED State of the State address Thursday, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott cast a shadow on the prospects of him signing his state up for a multi-state compact to reduce vehicle emissions. Scott, who along with Gov. Charlie Baker is one of two Republican governors in New England, did not(...)

Patrick recounts bruising transportation funding battles

DeLeo, at center of current debate, played major role in 2013

By Bruce Mohl Massachusetts Legislature, Transportation 0 Comments Jan 9, 2020

DEVAL PATRICK WAS GOVERNOR the last time the Legislature grappled with providing new funding for transportation, and for him it’s not a pleasant memory. On the Horse Race podcast from the MassINC Polling Group, which was posted Wednesday night, Patrick talked a lot about his presidential campaign, but he also took a stroll down memory(...)

Rush-hour focus with commuter rail is low-hanging fruit

By William Brownsberger MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Jan 8, 2020

MASSACHUSETTS IS CURRENTLY contemplating a program of investments in regional rail expansion that may cost tens of billions of dollars over several decades. Within that program we need to prioritize the highest value investments. All agree that the top priority is to make the existing system reliable. We have a moral obligation to those who already use rail to(...)

Advocates call for T control board extension

Aloisi: ‘It’s a mistake to change horses in midstream’

By Bruce Mohl Codcast, MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Jan 6, 2020

SOME OF THE STATE’S leading transit advocates are calling for extending the life of the existing MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board for six months to a year and making buses free across the state. On the TransitMatters Codcast hosted by CommonWealth magazine, Jim Aloisi, the former transportation secretary and TransitMatters board member; Josh Fairchild, the(...)

TransitMatters rebuts Brownsberger

Defends regional rail, rejects rush-hour focus

By Josh Fairchild, Ethan Finlan, James Aloisi and Alon Levy MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Jan 6, 2020

METRO BOSTON enters 2020 in the firm grip of a transportation crisis. That crisis manifests itself as a combination of the worst traffic congestion in the nation, an unreliable inner-core transit and bus network, and an antiquated approach to commuter rail operations that leads to outdated, inconsistent, and unreliable service. The crisis threatens our growing(...)