THE FIGHT for the eastern Massachusetts casino license ended more than seven months ago, but it feels like the battle is still raging. Boston, Somerville, Revere, and Mohegan Sun are all […]
MBTA
Posted inThe Back Story, Transportation
T report misses mark on absenteeism numbers
ONE OF THE MOST ALARMING figures to come out of Gov. Charlie Baker’s MBTA panel report earlier this month was 57. That’s the average number of working days that T […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Lawmakers skeptical of MBTA control board plan
Can the Baker administration address the MBTA’s problems using the tools that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation already has? That was the question that the Joint Committee on Transportation wrestled […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Baker unveils MBTA reform legislation
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack unveiled legislation Wednesday to create a fiscal and management control board to take charge of the crisis-ridden MBTA. The move comes one day […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Alvaro critiques MBTA panel
FERDINAND ALVARO UNDERSTANDS the MBTA’s finances and inner workings better than most outsiders. Ask him who is to blame for the bundle of issues that led to the transit agency’s […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Baker, Rosenberg go nuclear
There’s a new credo on Beacon Hill, apparently: If things aren’t going your way, blow it up. In the Legislature, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg appears to be following through on invoking the […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
DiCara is wrong about Boston buses
IN A RECENT CommonWealth piece, Larry DiCara decried the routing of MBTA buses through downtown Boston, which he said was clogging its already congested streets. If you look at downtown […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Baker’s leak strategy
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S press strategy for this week’s MBTA advisory panel report — which involved a steady diet of leaks in advance of its official Wednesday release — was masterful, […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Baker’s MBTA control board gift to Legislature
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER gave House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Stan Rosenberg a big gift. The present did not come wrapped in colorful paper with a fancy bow. It’s mundane […]
Posted inTransportation
Pollack’s evolution on more T revenue
EVERYONE ASSUMED THAT Stephanie Pollack, a long-time advocate for more funding for the MBTA and other transit agencies, was going to find rough going in the no-new-taxes Baker administration. But […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Panel calls for MBTA fiscal control board
The special panel appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker to examine the MBTA after the transit system’s winter collapse proposed a nuclear option – a fiscal and management control board, to […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics, Transportation
Time to pop this trial balloon
I KNOW SOMETHING about trial balloons. I launched a few myself when I was state transportation secretary. It’s a tried and true way for public officials to test whether there […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Reform, not revenue, says Baker T panel
It’s been something of a parlor game in policy and political circles these last weeks. Can the group commissioned by the no-new-taxes Baker administration to review the troubled MBTA possibly […]
Posted inOlympics, Opinion, Transportation
Pride alone won’t fix things
PRIDE IS A tricky emotion. Even in ancient times, thought leaders cautioned people about the dangers of pride. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall,” is […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Can the T do anything right?
Perhaps we should consider changing the name of the public transit agency from MBTA to MPTA, for Massachusetts Piñata Transportation Authority. From public records to the new casino industry, the […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Culture wars at the MBTA
The circular firing squad otherwise known as the MBTA unleashed more volleys during this week’s transportation oversight hearings on Beacon Hill. Thomas Murray, the Transport Workers Union president, summed the […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Union chief criticizes T’s commuter rail oversight
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A TRANSPORTATION UNION chief laid into the MBTA on Tuesday, referring to new equipment as “wrecks on wheels” and charging the transit agency with micro-managing the […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Pollack: “Hemorrhaging” MBTA needs tourniquet
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MBTA HAS an estimated 535 employees on its debt-funded capital budget and without state budget help will run a $187 million deficit next fiscal year, […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
End downtown Boston’s busmageddon
THIS WINTER’S PUBLIC transportation crisis offers our elected and appointed leaders a unique opportunity to undo decades of questionable decisions. Others can opine regarding commuter rail and other segments of […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Transportation
Commuter rail ridership numbers don’t add up
COMMUTER RAIL RIDERSHIP is up. No, it’s down. Actually, it’s held steady. These three statements cannot all be true. And yet, all three are supported by official data collected and published […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
The T must succeed
THIS WINTER’S MBTA debacle has focused attention – as it should – on how the T does business. But it is important not to lose sight of why the T […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Transportation
Keolis accused MBTA of meddling in hiring
THE TOP OFFICIAL at the state’s commuter rail operator raised concerns in a December letter to the MBTA that agency officials were undermining efforts to hire an experienced executive to […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
$5m offered as compensation for poor transit service
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE PUBLIC TRANSIT RIDERS will see free access to the MBTA and the commuter rail for one day, while corporate and other passholders will see a 15 […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Tackling MBTA’s debt problem
THE MBTA’S EFFORTS to spare Boston-area riders fare increases and service cuts by restructuring its debt service payments made a bad financial situation worse, according to a new report by […]