THE MEMBERS OF THE MBTA’S oversight board indicated on Monday that they are extremely wary of expanding service at a time when so much work remains on improving the quality of existing operations.
The concerns surfaced at the Fiscal and Management Control Board’s weekly meeting during a discussion about how to evaluate pilot projects to expand service. As a staffer sought guidance from board members on how they want to evaluate pilot proposals, it quickly became apparent that the board members were skeptical of any service expansion unless the benefits were clear.
Four pilot project proposals are currently pending before the MBTA. Two deal with commuter rail service – one extending regular, daily service on the Fairmount Line to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough and the other extending commuter rail service from the Middleboro-Lakeville line to Bourne on Cape Cod. The other two pilot proposals would test year-round ferry service between Lynn and Boston and overnight bus service across Greater Boston.
Board member Steve Poftak raised concerns about analyzing all of the costs associated with a service expansion. Board chairman Joseph Aiello also had cost concerns; in addition, he wanted information on past agreements between the T and sponsors of the pilot proposals.
Board member Monica Tibbits-Nutt said she wanted to make sure that service expansion proposals were compared against each other so that everyone would be aware that service expansion in one area could mean a project elsewhere could not be pursued. For example, she was wary of expanding commuter rail service to new destinations at a time when many inner city bus routes are not working well. “There are tradeoffs here,” she said.
Tibbetts-Nutt at one point said she wasn’t in favor of any sort of rail expansion because rail is “insanely expensive.”
David Mohler, director of the state Transportation Department’s planning department, recommended that the board have MBTA staff develop guidelines for assessing pilot projects but in the meantime move ahead with evaluating the existing pilot proposals. There was even a suggestion that one of the pilots – perhaps commuter rail service to Foxborough or overnight bus service – could be approved in February before the guidelines are completed.
Board member Lisa Calise said she was not in favor of moving ahead witof Norfolembers nodded their heads in agreement, Calise said: “We all seem to be pulling in the same direction with our concerns.”
The Foxborough proposal, which is being pushed by Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, seemed to be on a fast track toward approval in February until the board put the brakes on the entire process.
During the public comment period of the meeting, Republican Rep. Shawn Dooley of Norfolk criticized the proposed train to Gillette Stadium, saying Foxborough doesn’t need commuter rail service because it is surrounded by communities that already have T service. Dooley, who represents communities opposed to the new train service, said the Foxborough proposal would be little more than a “private train station” for Kraft and his retail operations near Gillette Stadium.
“This should not be subsidized by the taxpayers,” Dooley said.
“THE MEMBERS OF THE MBTA’S oversight board indicated on Monday that they are extremely wary of expanding service…”
Gov. Baker has made similar statements.
They are correct. Over-emphasizing expansion, at the expense of maintenance, is what got into the current decrepit condition.
Expansion is fine as long as there is a plan to finance the maintenance of it into the extended future.
The MBTA’s financial woes stem from underfunded maintenance budgets over the course of decades, as well as management that was unwilling and unable to compensate for the lack of adequate maintenance on an aging system.
and most people know that it was graft and poor management- but them some know more than others