At a time when roughly a quarter of the MBTA subway system is crawling along at a safety-induced snail’s pace, US Rep. Seth Moulton is pushing an ambitious expansion of the T’s commuter rail network.

He acknowledges the first priority is getting the T’s subway system back in working order. “The reality is that the T is slower today than it was decades ago,” he said on The Codcast. “The first subway in the nation is now the worst subway in the nation.” 

But once that Herculean task is accomplished, he has new mountains for the MBTA to scale. 

“Looking toward the future, what we truly need is a world class regional transit system that can get people around the state faster than driving,” he said. “That’s the only way to get people out of their cars on to nicer trains. People don’t want to have to take trains because it’s the best of terrible options. We need people to want to take the train because it’s faster to get them to where they need to go.”