STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER PAUSING the campaign due to a shortage of drivers, MBTA officials are hopeful they can revive an effort to overhaul and expand the bus network by the end of next year. Justin Antos, the MBTA’s senior director of bus transformation, said Tuesday the project that aims to boost bus service […]
Transportation
Posted inTransportation
GLX repairs could take 14 days
THE MBTA is considering a proposal to slightly widen the tracks on most of the Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford by shutting the system down early for 10 to 14 days starting November 1. General Manager Phillip Eng told the MBTA board of directors on Tuesday that the T’s contractor has proposed shutting […]
Posted inTransportation
T suggests GLX rail ties manufactured incorrectly
THE MBTA says it intends to hold its contractor responsible for fixing rail ties placed too close together on the Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford, but the transit authority’s general manager said the problem should have been fully uncovered and addressed as much as a year before the $2.3 billion project started carrying […]
Posted inEducation, Government, Opinion, State Government
Push for electric school buses faces procurement bump in the road
THE COMMONWEALTH HAS established itself as a national leader in addressing climate change by setting an aggressive goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A host of strategies have been adopted and proposed to move us forward in meeting this goal. This is cause for celebration given that leaders in some states refuse […]
Posted inOpinion
I’ve seen the T recover twice in my lifetime
WITH DAILY NEWS of shocking and unacceptable conditions for T riders, there is a danger that people will conclude that failure is inevitable. However, I have seen the MBTA recover from desperately bad conditions at least twice in my lifetime. History shows that committed political leadership is the most important variable in making that happen. […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA says all GLX slow zones are eliminated
THE MBTA reported on Wednesday that all of the slow zones on the Green Line extension have been removed – good news that was surprisingly buried in a MassDOT press release about repairs being completed early on the Squires Bridge in Somerville. The T has taken a lot of heat for 3 mile-per-hour slow zones […]
Posted inPolitics
Short takes: Wu, Campbell on different pages
THIS WEEK’S VOTE by the Boston City Council to sign off on $3.4 million in state grants for the Boston Police Department’s intelligence unit was a big win for Mayor Michelle Wu. But could it set her on a collision course with a one-time colleague and mayor’s race rival? In 2021, while serving on the […]
Posted inEnvironment
Advocates press Healey to scrap Hanscom expansion
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN A NEW SURGE of opposition, advocates are calling directly on Gov. Maura Healey to stop the expansion of the publicly owned airfield in Bedford that holds the most private jets in New England. The Massachusetts Port Authority, a quasi-public agency, has proposed adding 27 hangars at Lawrence G. Hanscom Field […]
Posted inTransportation
Eng follows ‘script’ on GLX slow zones
AT THE MBTA board of directors meeting on Thursday, General Manager Phillip Eng followed what has become a familiar script, focusing on the process of getting the T where he wants it to be rather than addressing head-on the setbacks afflicting the transit authority, which seem to be occurring on almost a weekly basis. The […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA employee indicted 6 years ago pleads guilty
An MBTA EMPLOYEE who was indicted and suspended six years ago for leveraging his job as a buyer to solicit kickbacks and illegal gifts pleaded guilty on Monday and was sentenced to a year in jail and required to pay restitution of $37,860. Timothy Dockery of Plymouth pleaded guilty to 13 charges related to misuse […]