Tracking Transportation

Keeping track of transportation

How do we avoid a transportation relapse?

We need to restore confidence in public transit

By Mary Skelton Roberts and Aaron S. Bernstein Climate change, MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Aug 7, 2020

FOR MANY US CITIES, the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic provided a remarkable if temporary glimpse of an urban environment with dramatically less car travel and air pollution. On social media, photos emerged, from typically traffic-choked Boston to smoggy Los Angeles, of open roads and clear blue skies. While the reason for this change(...)

T eliminating plastic-paper/cash price differential

Bus ridership forecast to hit 50% of pre-COVID levels in Sept.

By Bruce Mohl MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Aug 5, 2020

THE MBTA SAID on Wednesday that starting September 1 it plans to eliminate the significant price differential between those who pay their fares with rechargeable plastic CharlieCards and those who pay with cash or paper CharlieTickets. The premium for using cash or paper is high. Currently, someone boarding a bus and paying with a paper(...)

Public has interest in Pan Am Railways sale

We recommend strong interventionist role

By TransitMatters Rail Group Transportation 0 Comments Aug 1, 2020

ON JUNE 29, Trains Magazine reported that Pan Am Railways, the dominant freight carrier in northern New England, is for sale. Pan Am is perhaps best known to the public because it shares track with MBTA commuter rail trains on the Fitchburg and Haverhill lines (it owns the former from Fitchburg to Wachusett) as well(...)

Salvaging an unsatisfying legislative session on transportation

5 recommendations for the House-Senate conference committee

By Chris Dempsey Massachusetts Legislature, Transportation 0 Comments Jul 22, 2020

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE the year for the Massachusetts Legislature to deliver a major overhaul of the state’s transportation system. The stars had begun to align in early March when the House passed a pair of bills that raised revenue and authorized key transportation projects across the Commonwealth. Then came coronavirus, economic calamity, and(...)

T control board to remain largely intact

Aiello: Priority is planning for uncertain future

By Bruce Mohl Charlie Baker, MBTA, Transportation 0 Comments Jul 22, 2020

THE MBTA’S FISCAL AND MANAGEMENT CONTROL BOARD will remain largely intact going forward, as four of the five members, including chair Joseph Aiello, have decided to stay on for the coming year. Aiello, who had previously indicated he intended to step down, said his immediate priority is helping the T plan for a very uncertain(...)

Pandemic demands rethinking costly Transportation Climate Initiative

Major shift in commuting patterns weakens Baker administration case

By Brian Moran Transportation Climate Initiative 0 Comments Jul 16, 2020

COMMUTES ONCE MEASURED in miles, hours and aggravation have changed to steps, minutes, and tranquility for those who continue to work from home post-pandemic. This is good news for many workers and families, as well as for the environment. From a work-life balance perspective, many have cheered their improved productivity, reduced(...)

What happened to the transportation revenue bill?

Senate scuttles major House tax priority amid pandemic

By Shira Schoenberg Joseph Boncore, taxes, transportation revenue, William Straus 0 Comments Jul 15, 2020

LESS THAN FIVE months ago, frustrated drivers and transit riders saw a glimmer of hope that a major infusion of cash might soon be on its way to shore up the state’s ailing transportation system. The Massachusetts House – typically the Legislature’s more conservative body on taxes – unveiled a $600 million transportation revenue bill. While the future of the bill was always uncertain(...)

Don’t let pandemic stifle bold transportation policy

Going small would be ‘historic missed opportunity’

By James Aloisi 0 Comments Jul 14, 2020

WE ARE IN a crisis, with little apparent prospect of advancing toward a better future. It’s not COVID-19 I’m talking about, not directly. But all things converge, and the state legislative response to our chronic, undebatable transportation crisis – a crisis that impacts the quality of the air we breathe, the mobility fairness and responsiveness(...)

Senate to tackle transportation with borrowing, not taxes

Boncore says COVID-19 has shifted debate on revenue

By Chris Lisinski 0 Comments Jul 10, 2020

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE SENATE WILL NOT take up a House-approved, half billion-dollar package of transportation tax and fee increases this lawmaking session, instead focusing attention on an omnibus borrowing bill that the Senate’s Transportation Committee chairman believes can be fully funded without new revenues. Sen. Joe Boncore, who like House Speaker Robert DeLeo(...)

Senate pushed to pass transpo revenue package

House lawmakers, advocates pressure senators to act

By Bruce Mohl Massachusetts Legislature, Taxes and Budget Issues, Transportation 0 Comments Jul 1, 2020

THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE, widely considered a bastion of liberalism on Beacon Hill, suddenly finds itself being pushed and prodded by all sorts of progressive groups to follow the lead of the more business-friendly House and raise taxes and fees to support transportation. The House passed a more than $500 million tax and fee package to(...)