STATE HOUSE NEWS FOLLOWING IDENTIFIED VULNERABILITIES at its Charlestown revenue facility, the MBTA shifted security from the MBTA Transit Police Department to the private firm G4S, which is in the […]
Tracking Transportation
Keeping track of transportation
Posted inTransportation
Problems with privatization at T parking lots
MBTA OFFICIALS made the case on Monday for privatizing the agency’s warehouse and parts operations even as they continued to investigate what appears to be a major loss of money at […]
Posted inTransportation
T warehouses called management failure
MBTA OFFICIALS ON MONDAY described a massive management failure at the agency going back decades that has left the authority with a costly and inefficient warehouse system that often leaves […]
Posted inTransportation
Carmen’s Union grieves T absenteeism policy
A correction was added to this story regarding the language of the Family and Medical Leave Act. THE BOSTON CARMEN’S UNION has filed a grievance over the MBTA’s new absenteeism […]
Posted inTransportation
Aiello: One of T’s biggest challenges is workforce
THE HEAD OF THE MBTA oversight board said on Tuesday that one of the authority’s biggest infrastructure challenges is its management workforce. Joseph Aiello, the chairman of the T’s Fiscal […]
Posted inTransportation
T board ends commuter rail refunds
COMMUTER RAIL PASSENGERS will no longer be able to get refunds on unused tickets, a change that puts them on the same track as other MBTA riders and could save […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA says it can’t reconcile fare data, cash deposits
MBTA OFFICIALS ACKNOWLEDGED on Monday that they still can’t reconcile what their fare machines are telling them is being collected and the money actually being deposited in the bank, a […]
Posted inTransportation
T parking data raises lots of questions
PARKING REVENUE at a number of major MBTA lots jumped dramatically in March and April after the transit authority began investigating receipt discrepancies. The numbers suggest the loss of parking […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
MBTA GM DePaola, fighting cancer, stepping down
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MBTA GENERAL MANAGER FRANK DEPAOLA has been battling cancer and plans to retire June 30, state officials announced on Monday. “As some of you know, Frank […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
SJC to state: Broaden emission mandates
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A UNANIMOUS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT RULING handed down on Tuesday affirms the state’s obligations under a 2008 global warming law and orders state government to create […]
Posted inTransportation
T board briefed on parking ‘discrepancies’
A correction has been added to this story. MBTA OFFICIALS on Monday briefed the agency’s oversight board for the first time about “parking revenue discrepancies” that first surfaced in late […]
Posted inTransportation
Boards give yellow light to Green Line Ext.
TWO STATE TRANSPORTATION BOARDS on Monday gave what might be called a yellow light to the Green Line Extension, essentially allowing a scaled-back version of the project to proceed on […]
Posted inTransportation
T takes risk with new construction method
IN AN ECHO of the recent debacle over ballooning costs for the Green Line extension, the MBTA is eyeing yet another public construction method the agency has little experience with […]
Posted inTransportation
T cuts Green Line Ext. costs $622m
THE MBTA REVEALED ON MONDAY that it has pared back the cost of the proposed Green Line Extension by $622 million, but Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said it’s still unclear […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Green Line Ext. is really an innovation extension
WHAT DO ALTAEROS ENERGIES, Voxel8, and Autonomous Marine Systems have in common? For starters, they’re all startup companies developing “firsts” in their respective fields: the world’s first fully-functional airborne wind […]
Posted inTransportation
Are Green Line trains getting less crowded?
THE MBTA’S OWN DATA indicate passenger traffic on the Green Line is declining, but agency officials say they don’t believe the numbers. Jeffrey Gonneville, the T’s chief operating officer, told […]
Posted inTransportation
Cost of all-night bus service put at $5.8m
THE MBTA ESTIMATED on Monday that a proposal for all-night bus service in metropolitan Boston was three to four times more expensive than the $1 to $1.4 million estimated by […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Whither Boston?
THE RECENT DECISION of the IndyCar promoters to pull out of Boston was met by some with relief, by others with dismay. I was not a fan, and I was […]
Posted inTransportation
The T wants you – to snitch
THE MBTA’s COMMUTER RAIL operator thinks it has a secret weapon in the effort to recoup as much as $35 million in lost revenues from fare evasion – snitches. That […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
T pension fund has negligible gains
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MBTA RETIREMENT FUND, which set its assumed annual rate of return on investments at 7.75 percent, will probably earn about a half-percent of return in 2015, […]
Posted inTransportation
T parking fee probe expands to 3 stations
AN INTERNAL MBTA DOCUMENT indicates a probe of parking fee losses now extends to more than one station and refers to a terminated employee who had been working for the […]
Posted inTransportation
Tackling the time warp at the T
Photograph by Mark Morelli ON HIS FIRST day on the job last May as the MBTA’s chief procurement officer, Gerard Polcari checked in with Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack and then […]
Posted inTransportation
T transit police take over parking probe
AN MBTA SPOKESMAN said the agency has now brought in the transit police to investigate parking fee discrepancies that came to light last month, but refused to provide more details. […]
Posted inTransportation
T board wants all-night service proposal vetted
THE MBTA OVERSIGHT BOARD on Monday put on hold a plan to add additional bus routes to mitigate the cancellation of late-night service until a more sweeping proposal for all-night […]