NEARLY A THOUSAND students at UMass Boston are receiving a significant discount on their MBTA passes this semester, thanks largely to subsidies provided by their classmates. Students voted in April […]
MBTA
Posted inTransportation
T releases contracts with safety panel members
THE MBTA on Monday released contracts it signed with a trio of experts who were hired two months ago to review the agency’s safety procedures and past derailments. Former US […]
Posted inOpinion
Public-private partnerships could finance new bus garages
ON AN AVERAGE WEEKDAY, the MBTA bus system moves about 400,000 people—that’s one-third of the MBTA’s total ridership. The T’s bus system is essential to maintaining our region’s economic growth, […]
Posted inOpinion
Time for state to walk the walk on bus rapid transit
THE OPENING OF THE ENCORE BOSTON HARBOR casino gave Everett and the lower Broadway corridor a big boost, but the municipality was already growing quickly. Everett’s population grew from less […]
Posted inTransportation
Fire forces T to evacuate two trains
A FIRE ON the Orange Line prompted the MBTA to temporarily shut down service north of downtown on Friday afternoon and forced some passengers to walk along train tracks to […]
Posted inTransportation
Commuter rail riders ‘somewhat satisfied’
COMMUTER RAIL RIDERS overall are “somewhat satisfied” with the rail system’s performance, according to internal polls commissioned by Keolis Commuter Services that have shown steady but slow improvement over the […]
Posted inTransportation
Red Line ridership hasn’t recovered
RED LINE RIDERSHIP has not fully recovered from the hit it took after a June 11 derailment, and the MBTA’s regular monthly survey of users suggests satisfaction with the agency […]
Posted inTransportation
T notes: Accelerated work means more closures on T
RESPONDING TO Gov. Charlie Baker’s urging to accelerate repairs even if that means more weekend and overnight closures, the MBTA announced a plan to step up work on the Red, […]
Posted inTransportation
T completes some Red Line signal improvements
THE MBTA SAYS it has restored automated signal systems between the JFK/UMass and Broadway stations that were damaged in the June 11 derailment, eliminating the need for manual signaling on […]
Posted inOpinion
Telecommuting tax credit misses mark
THE MARK OF GOOD PUBLIC POLICY, often honored in the breach, is to identify the most direct means to address a particular problem. In the case of the state’s massive […]
Posted inPolitics
Bump rejects Holyoke CC bookstore privatization
STATE AUDITOR SUZANNE BUMP rejected an attempt by Holyoke Community College to privatize some of its bookstore operations, saying the school had failed to comply with a number of provisions of a state law placing […]
Posted inTransportation
As T plugs into e-buses, new questions about garages
THE MBTA HAS outgrown its decades-old bus maintenance garages, and T officials are considering adding around 500 buses to the fleet of roughly 1,000, which some think sets up an […]
Posted inTransportation
Green Line derailment 6th this year at MBTA
A PRELIMINARY MBTA investigation is blaming operator error for Wednesday morning’s Green Line derailment, the transit authority’s sixth passenger-service derailment in 2019 and the third caused by human error. T […]
Posted inTransportation
Red Line won’t be at full strength until Oct.
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MBTA OFFICIALS pushed back the target completion date for full Red Line repairs from Labor Day to sometime in October, but declined to say what prompted […]
Posted inNews Analysis
No beach for Baker
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER hasn’t had much time for the beach this summer. First there was the Red Line derailment on June 11, which knocked the MBTA on its heels and […]
Posted inTransportation
Baker pushes telecommuter tax credit
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER called a press conference on Thursday to detail transportation initiatives he has launched since taking office and to lay out a number of measures he sees on […]
Posted inTransportation
Baker remarks on transportation bond bill
Governor Baker’s remarks as prepared for delivery at a press conference July 25 on a transportation bond bill: “Good afternoon. Today we will provide a brief update on transportation here […]
Posted inOpinion
Why is off-peak Red Line service being cut?
IT’S NOT SURPRISING that service on the Red Line has suffered in the wake of the June 11 derailment that took out a large chunk of the line’s signal system. […]
Posted inTransportation
T notes: Capital spending reaches $1b
THE MBTA SPENT more than $1 billion on capital projects in fiscal 2019 – about $50 million more than the transit authority’s goal for the year. The good news was […]
Posted inPolitics
Walsh pitches ride-hailing fees as traffic solution
BOSTON MAYOR MARTY Walsh wants to reduce traffic choking city streets and enhance transit options in the city through a mixture of targeted taxes on ride-hailing services and investments by […]
Posted inTransportation
T notes: Workforce slated to grow 10.5% this year
THE MBTA WANTS TO INCREASE the size of its workforce by 10.5 percent this fiscal year. In a presentation to the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board, Matt St. Hilaire, […]
Posted inTransportation
T has extra $1.2b: How would you spend it?
IT HASN’T RECEIVED a lot of attention, but the MBTA has an extra $1.2 billion in untapped capital funds at its disposal. The agency’s five-year capital spending plan has $9.4 […]
Posted inOpinion
Fixing Kendall Square’s mobility challenges
TRANSPORT KENDALL, a partnership of the Kendall Square Association, the city of Cambridge, and the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, recently issued a report that appropriately underscores that transit, bicycling, and walking […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA releases video of Red Line derailment
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MBTA RELEASED video Friday of a June 11 Red Line derailment that officials say will continue to cause delays through most of the summer, the […]