SANDWICHED BY BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK winter storms, commuter rail officials had one more challenge to deal with last week: The highest one-day ridership in the history of the service with fans coming […]
Transportation
Posted inTransportation
T finds demand for late-night
THE MBTA MOVED one step closer to restoring late-night bus service after members of the oversight board gave cautious support for subsidies because of surveys showing there would be an […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download, Transportation
A dirge for taxis
It was raining hard in ‘Frisco I needed one more fare to make my night A lady up ahead waved to flag me down She got in at the light […]
Posted inTransportation
Senate going on the road again
THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE IS GOING on the road again this year, holding nine so-called Commonwealth Conversations around the state with a special focus on regional transportation needs. The day-long events […]
Posted inTransportation
T praised for response to Women’s March
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY STEPHANIE POLLACK and members of the MBTA’s oversight board on Monday praised the authority and the state’s commuter rail operator for their response to the huge crowds that […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Buses are what’s next in transportation
YOU WAIT 20 MINUTES for a bus, only to watch three show up all at once. Soon after boarding, the glut of vehicles carrying hundreds of commuters comes to a […]
Posted inTransportation
Logan passengers can now get a Lyft
MASSPORT HAS REACHED an agreement with Lyft to allow the ride-hailing company to operate out of Logan Airport, a move that paves the way for other transportation network companies such […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Slow train coming?
The idea of a faster train between Boston and New York sounds like no-brainer. Cutting the travel time between two booming East Coast cities to 2 hours and 45 minutes […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
New T board needs to include municipalities
Second of two parts, first part is here. IN THE FIRST ARTICLE in this series, I wrote about the importance of addressing MBTA governance. A 2015 report from two highly […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
MBTA governance needs radical makeover
First in a two-part series; second part is here. THE MBTA’S FISCAL AND MANAGEMENT CONTROL BOARD is properly in the process of developing a strategic plan that will help guide […]
Posted inTransportation
T subsidy confusion
THE MBTA’S OPERATING subsidy per passenger seemed to increase last year compared to the year before, but officials say the primary difference was in how the figures were calculated. In […]
Posted inTransportation
T privatizes warehouse operations
THE MBTA’S OVERSIGHT BOARD on Monday approved a $7.1 million contract with a Virginia-based company to privatize the warehouse and logistics operations of the transit authority. Officials said the contract […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Baker plans to let Keolis contract expire
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WHILE IT’S UNCLEAR who will be in charge of state transportation policy in six years, Baker administration officials said Thursday their plan would be to allow […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download, Transportation
The Codcast: Talking among ourselves
What do criminal justice reform, the MBTA, and legal marijuana have in common? Other than the fact you can get busted for smoking and selling pot on the Green Line, […]
Posted inTransportation
T board raises competitive threat from Uber
IN THE MIDST OF A PRESENTATION on MBTA revenues, members of the T’s oversight board engaged in a debate about the threat to the transit agency posed by new transportation […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Debunking the Track 61 plan
EFFECTIVE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION systems are those that excel at getting people to places they want to go. That may seem an obvious point but the two attributes that help make […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
R.I. singles out trucks for tolls
Rhode Island is embracing road tolls in an interesting way, with a plan to assess the fees only on big-rig trucks. The idea, conceived by Gov. Gina Raimondo and backed […]
Posted inTransportation
Lyft offering a ride to the T
MBTA OFFICIALS, ALREADY heartened by improvements in transportation for the handicapped by taxis and private ride-hailing companies, are entertaining a proposal from Lyft to launch late-night on-demand pick-ups that would […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Glass ceilings don’t always remain shattered
MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, what we take for granted was not always so. In a time when it seems unremarkable that a woman is leading the Commonwealth’s Department of Transportation, […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Zipcar founder Robin Chase on upending the status quo
This article is part of a series entitled The Future of Mobility, a joint project of CommonWealth and Meeting of the Minds, a San Francisco-based organization that seeks to build alliances around […]
Posted inTransportation
S. Coast Rail oversight shifted from T to state
MASSACHUSETTS OFFICIALS on Monday shifted oversight of the South Coast Rail commuter rail project from the MBTA to the state Transportation Department and said they are now analyzing two route […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
South Station commuter rail accident unreported
A PREVIOUSLY UNREPORTED incident in which a commuter rail train that struck a bumper at South Station was similar to an accident in Hoboken, NJ, earlier in the fall that […]
Posted inTransportation
T eyes increase in executive salaries
DESPITE THE MBTA’s reputation as a wasteful state agency bloated with overpaid employees, the board that oversees the agency thinks upper management is underpaid and that low-balling those positions will […]
Posted inTransportation
T hires GLX manager at $280,000 base salary
THE MBTA ANNOUNCED on Monday that it has hired a Chicago-based construction official to oversee the $2.3 billion Green Line extension into Somerville and Medford, paying him a salary that […]