The Download: Eng says MBTA ridership will bounce back as service improves
Eng says MBTA ridership will bounce back as service improves
Eng is focused on service improvement, aggressively ramping up hiring and moving to eliminate slow zones on all of the subway lines by the end of this year.
Eng predicts MBTA ridership will bounce back after service improves
This week on The Codcast, MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng talks to CommonWealth Beacon’s Bruce Mohl about his first year running the T, why he’s optimistic about bringing riders back, and where things stand with train car manufacturer CRRC.
Lawmakers trying something new with ballot questions
House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka announced the new approach at the end of January and the first hearing – on a question seeking to abolish the MCAS graduation requirement – is scheduled for Monday.
Mass. on wrong track with child protection policy
In 2021, Massachusetts took children from their families at a rate 70 percent above the national average, when rates of child poverty are factored in.
The bomb-tossing bean counter
Not even halfway through her first term as auditor, Diana DiZoglio has essentially returned to the campaign trail. She is lobbying voters, and emptying her own campaign coffers, to support an initiative she wants to put before voters this November.
High electricity rates undermine heat pump expansion
What will it take to change course? Building more transmission from affordable Canadian hydropower in Quebec? Streamlining permitting for offshore wind? Permit reform for transmission? I’m all for any of those.
One of our major climate challenges is our own trash
Calling incinerators “waste combustors” doesn’t change the fact that they are a major health hazard to local communities, emitting toxic air pollutants like particulate matter and heavy metals which are linked to a variety of health problems including asthma, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
Political Notebook
WHEN STEVE LYNCH paints congressional Republicans as an extremist band of ideologues detached from reality it carries a bit more weight. The one-time Southie ironworker is nobody’s idea of a […]
Brayton Point offshore wind plant hits snag
Prysmian Group, which is seeking to build a $300 million subsea cable manufacturing plant at Brayton Point, did not respond to a request for comment. But Jamison Souza, the chair of the town’s Select Board, angrily condemned the filing and the “false statements” it contains.
Offshore wind power prices take big leap
A press release issued by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated the average cost of the two contracts in New York is $150.15 per megawatt hour. The press release said the price “is on-par with the latest market prices,” but it’s a sticker-shock leap from the $76.73-per-megawatt-hour price that Massachusetts negotiated with Avangrid in March 2023.
Walkable, denser development can address both housing and traffic woes
Part of the solution to our existential housing and transportation crises is building more homes, of all types, in and around walkable neighborhoods.
House looks poised to punt again on sex ed bill
Proponents have expressed mystification, and frustration, about the House’s continued resistance to the bill. Former Senate president Harriette Chandler, who supported the bill during her time in office, repeatedly called the long delay “a disgrace” last month on a local cable show she hosts while talking with bill sponsor Rep. Jim O’Day.
Physician group’s radiation warning way overblown
n short, careful thorough research has taught us that ionizing radiation is indeed a carcinogen, but a very weak one, even at massively high doses.
Wolohojian confirmed on 6-1 vote
An Appeals Court jurist of 16 years and former partner at the firm now known as WilmerHale, Wolohojian’s nomination has drawn public scrutiny because of her past personal relationship with the governor. Healey and the judge shared a home in Charlestown for several years.
THC-infused hemp products getting Beacon Hill’s attention
The products are technically illegal in Massachusetts, but neither the Agricultural Department, which regulates hemp, nor the Department of Public Health, which regulates food products, has stepped up with any enforcement. The agencies have left that job to under-resourced local boards of health which have taken no action.
Warren challenger sounds a lot like…Warren
As Deaton unspools his story and talks about how it inspired him to want to go to Washington to fight for the little guy, it’s hard not to think of the origin story that Warren says drives her, growing up on “the ragged edge of the middle class” in Oklahoma.
State needs to learn hard lessons from Steward debacle
State government has great numbers of terrific people working on health problems, but the Steward crisis shows that essential tools—knowledge, legal authority, and money—are all lacking.
Mattapan trolley is a unicorn, says Milton official in letter
The Mattapan Trolley Line is a unicorn that is separate from the MBTA Red Line, Green Line, Orange Line, or Blue Line, is treated as such by the MBTA, and is not addressed in the Guidelines.
Milton Select Board divided on next steps
Milton officials now find themselves in the awkward position of trying to comply with the law in an angry community that soundly rejected their earlier effort at compliance.
AG Campbell sues Milton over MBTA Communities law
Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed suit on Tuesday, asking the court to order that Milton has to comply with a sweeping state law requiring that communities within a certain distance of public transit rezone to allow for minimum amounts of multifamily construction as-of-right.