All-electronic tolling launches on the Massachusetts Turnpike in October. Are you ready? The folks at Masslive are all over this story. They’ve created a catalogue of stories on the new […]
Transportation
Posted inThe Download
Baker reaffirms no new taxes
Gov. Charlie Baker reaffirmed his support for no new taxes on Monday, disavowing statements last week and making clear he is not as progressive as many in Massachusetts seem to […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Lawmakers send fare cap plan back to Baker
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE UNPERSUADED BY HIS arguments for greater flexibility in setting fares, lawmakers on Tuesday sent back to Gov. Charlie Baker legislation strictly capping MBTA fare increases at […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
MBTA police plan to privatize dispatch services
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MBTA PLANS to move its Transit Police dispatching function to the private vendor IXP Corporation, freeing up 15 officers to move to patrol as […]
Posted inThe Download
T control board’s one-year assessment
On the eve of their one-year anniversary, the five members of the MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board report that the “long-term rebuilding of the MBTA is underway.” That’s not […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Guiding principles for transportation
This is the first in 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 […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, Transportation
Fingerprints fail in Senate Uber bill
AFTER AN EXHAUSTIVE debate that dragged on for nearly five hours, the state Senate passed Uber-friendly regulations for the runaway ride-hailing industry but not before beating back an impassioned plea […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Build the Middleboro line now
THE FALL RIVER Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently testified before the Fiscal and Management Control Board at MassDOT in support of a Middleboro rail extension to Fall River […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
There’s no getting around
THE TERM “HIDING in plain sight” has meaning beyond the obvious. Sometimes facts and realities that are part of our daily routine get overlooked, taken for granted, accepted as part […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Senate bill more Uber friendly
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE More than three months after the House passed legislation regulating ride-for-hire companies like Uber and Lyft, Senate leaders on Thursday will release a new version of […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Dukakis, Pollack agree on North-South rail link
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE With a final decision far off, the chief advocate for building a train tunnel beneath downtown Boston and the skeptic from the Baker administration agreed on […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
$20.4m Comm Ave reconstruction approved
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE TRANSPORTATION OVERSEERS on Monday gave the go-ahead for a $20.4 million reconstruction along Commonwealth Avenue between Brookline and Boston, which will include building cycle tracks […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
$14.8b transportation capital plan OK’d
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AMID CONCERNS about state borrowing levels, state transportation officials on Monday tacked on another roughly $500 million to the state’s five-year capital investment plan, approving a […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Ride-sharing showdown looms
The Massachusetts Senate is slated to unveil its ride-sharing bill this week, which should provide a hint of how contentious the negotiations between the two branches will be as the […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Taxi medallion owners under water and drowning
Few tears are being shed for taxi medallion owners but there’s no denying they’re being squeezed into oblivion by Uber and Lyft. But the ripple effects are going beyond, with […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
The ghost of Stephanie Pollack
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack has plenty on her plate with trying to distribute a finite pot of money to deal with state’s aging transportation infrastructure as well as find the […]
Posted inTransportation
AAA says marijuana OUI laws useless
THE RESEARCH ARM of AAA says states that set legal limits for marijuana driving impairment have no scientific basis for the standards and urged a national effort to adopt uniform […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Is the Green Line Ext. back on track — or not?
The Boston Globe’s headline was “State OK’s a cut-down Green Line extension.” The Boston Herald went with “Green light for $2.3 billion MBTA extension plan.” CommonWealth’s take was: “Boards give […]
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 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 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 inThe Download, Transportation
Riders confess to fare evasion
How does the MBTA figure out how many commuter rail riders aren’t paying their fares? It asks them. A survey of 1,655 commuter rail riders at the beginning of March […]
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, […]