Tracking Transportation

Keeping track of transportation

Improving the ‘Amtrak experience’

How about assigning everyone seats?

By Peter O'Connor Transportation 6 Comments Nov 4, 2015

LIKE MANY PEOPLE who live between Boston and Washington, I ride Amtrak. So when I got a call a few weeks ago asking if I would participate in a focus group for riders, I quickly agreed. The eight people in our group were a pretty standard slice of what you see on the train –(...)

Straus says MBTA can raise fares 10 percent

Advocates say law only allows 5 percent hike

By Gabrielle Gurley MBTA, State Government, Transportation 1 Comment Nov 3, 2015

One of the leaders of the Legislature’s transportation committee said Tuesday that state law allows the MBTA to raise fares 10 percent next year, twice the level that transit advocates say is permitted. “I think the language permits it, yes,” said Rep. William Straus, the House chairman. Transportation advocates claim that two provisions in the(...)

T eyes new revenue-raising efforts

Higher parking fees, new developments possible in $40m plan

By Andy Metzger MBTA 2 Comments Oct 16, 2015

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH THE GOAL OF BOOSTING its own-source revenues by about $40 million, the MBTA is looking at hiking parking fees, converting surface lots into developments, and maximizing revenues from telecommunications and utility companies that want to use the system’s rights of way. “We’re trying to put everything on the table and(...)

Fall 2015

Overlords of the MBTA

A close-up look at the T's Fiscal and Management Control Board

By Gabrielle Gurley MBTA 4 Comments Oct 13, 2015

Photographs by Michael Manning THE NAME JOSEPH AIELLO probably means nothing to most MBTA riders. But the first major snowstorm might change that. Aiello is the chairman of the five-member MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board that has the job that has overwhelmed governors, transportation secretaries, and the system’s general managers for more than a(...)

DeLeo backs north-south rail link

Speaker joins 150 lawmakers in coalition

By Michael P. Norton and Matt Murphy MBTA 3 Comments Sep 22, 2015

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SAYING IT WOULD BE A “TERRIBLE MISTAKE” for the state to embark upon an expansion of South Station at the expense of a rail tunnel linking that hub with North Station, a coalition led by former governor Michael Dukakis is working to ramp up advocacy for the rail link in an(...)

T begins targeting absenteeism rate

2% of trips dropped; two-thirds due to operator absence

By Andy Metzger MBTA 0 Comments Sep 14, 2015

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE HOPING TO REDUCE ABSENTEEISM at the MBTA, transit officials have begun looking at the roots of the problem and making human resources hires. They are also considering bringing in an outside manager. From January through August of this year, the MBTA dropped 34,702 trips, or close to 2 percent of the(...)

Baker cautious on North-South rail link

Governor doesn't buy key claim of Dukakis, Weld

By Bruce Mohl MBTA 2 Comments Sep 9, 2015

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER told two of his predecessors on Wednesday that he and his staff would explore a proposed rail link between North and South Stations, but he appeared to reject one of their central arguments. Former governors Michael Dukakis and Bill Weld say the state has to deal with severe congestion at North and(...)

Once again, MBTA maps out growing budget deficits

Gap would hit $427 million in four years with costs outpacing revenues

By Andy Metzger MBTA, State Government, Taxes and Budget Issues, Transportation 1 Comment Sep 9, 2015

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MBTA HAS sketched out a growing deficit within its transit system that would balloon to $427 million in four years, as expenses far outpace growth in ridership and revenue. News of the looming budget deficits arrived two years after the Democrat-controlled Legislature attempted to finance transportation through a 3-cent gas(...)

The Dukakis-Weld rail link

What’s their rationale for another Big Dig?

By Bruce Mohl Bill Weld, Mike Dukakis, Transportation 1 Comment Sep 3, 2015

FORMER GOVERNORS Mike Dukakis and Bill Weld are heading up to Beacon Hill next week to put a rail link between North and South stations on Gov. Charlie Baker’s radar. Dukakis cooked up the Democrat-Republican collaboration, reaching out to Weld, who serves with him on the board of the Boston Harbor Island Alliance. Weld, of(...)

MBTA’s ‘good repair’ cost rises to $7.3b

Number was $6.7b last winter, $3.1b in 2009

By Andy Metzger MBTA 2 Comments Aug 31, 2015

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE COST OF BRINGING the MBTA’s trains, stations, tracks and other assets into good working condition has only grown larger with closer scrutiny, rising to $7.3 billion, according to a presentation on Monday. That is $651 million larger than the $6.7 billion state-of-good-repair backlog Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack reported last winter.(...)