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, […]
MBTA
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 […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
MBTA critics pile on
The evidence is mounting, as if more was needed, that the MBTA is in an epic freefall. The agency is on its way to being a Harvard Business School case […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
A Jeffersonian take on the Internet and T
THE IDEA OF American democracy has its roots in the Declaration of Independence’s affirmation that people are entitled to the benefits of certain unalienable rights – rights that are so […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
The MBTA’s rebate hot potato
A rebate program for the MBTA’s winter nonperformance snafus might make commuters happy, but does it make fiscal sense for a functionally insolvent agency to hand back money? Jonathan Davis, […]
Posted inGambling, Transportation
Wynn pays MBTA $6m for land
THE MBTA IS $6 million richer after selling a 1.75-acre parcel of land to Wynn Resorts for the preferred entrance to its planned $1.7 billion casino-hotel complex in Everett. The […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
What a ‘soft receivership’ for T would mean
LAST WEEK PIONEER Institute called for the MBTA to be placed in “soft receivership.” The purposes of this policy brief are to consider Massachusetts’ experience with two recent receiverships, and to […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Baker proposes T funding hike
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE TAXPAYERS WILL further subsidize the struggling MBTA under Gov. Charlie Baker’s budget proposal, which calls for a $64.5 million increase in funding for the agency, […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
The hazing of Frank DePaola
“Thank you, sir, may I have another?” That is the infamous response from a pledge to the Omega fraternity in the movie Animal House as he gets whacked repeatedly with a […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Battle for MBTA’s soul underway
As the task to slice and dice the MBTA’s historic collapse gets underway, a battle royale has erupted anew between two camps of transportation influencers who can be loosely described as […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
A short and long-term plan
THE RECENT MBTA meltdown has impressed upon the general public the critical importance of a reliable transit system to their daily lives. The T’s utter failure to provide reliable service […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Baker creates MBTA commission
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER moved to put his administration’s stamp on the MBTA by appointing a special commission to investigate how past finance, maintenance, and management practices led to the wintertime […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Baker talks more broadly about the T
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER, who has avoided discussion of long-term solutions in favor of focusing on short-term fixes for the snow-battered MBTA, said Thursday he is not […]
Posted inOlympics, The Download, Transportation
Blizzard burying Olympics bid?
It’s easy to forget in the mind- and finger-numbing midst of Snowmaggedon about Boston’s 2024 Olympic bid – easy to forget, that is, if you don’t pay attention to everyone decrying […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
On Fairmount Line, opportunity knocks
THE BLIZZARD OF 1888 left Boston gridlocked, and over 1,000 people died in its wake. Tragic as the storm was, there was a substantial silver lining. This catastrophe is often cited as the impetus […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Beacon Hill’s MBTA fix: Let them ride the T
Nonplussed by the plight of the poor, a French aristocrat once said “let them eat cake.” With hundreds of thousands of people struggling during the MBTA’s winter crisis, Massachusetts legislative leaders […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Rosenberg sees transportation disconnect
SENATE PRESIDENT STANLEY ROSENBERG said on Tuesday that the problems at the MBTA are straight out of “Democracy in America,” the book Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in the 1800s which […]
Posted inGambling, The Download
Gaming Commission challenge fails
A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Caesars Entertainment against Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby. The ruling uses language that could spell trouble for […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Great Scott!
MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott’s press conference on Tuesday was one of those rare moments in political life when an official just lets it rip. We in the press are […]
