A big challenge looms for the MBTA as it tries to move its commuter rail lines into the 21st century: Picking who will operate the sprawling system for the public transit agency, how will they do it, and for how long.
Regardless of what happens in Washington, one thing is certain: Massachusetts must take action to take control of our transportation future.
The T says it’s in the process of installing technology that’s designed to detect when trains are too close to each other, or are going too fast, after over 15 years of false starts.
Greater Boston is a region of big ideas. The MBTA, however, isn’t thinking big enough, and its leaders need the CRE industry’s help to expand their horizons.
Despite having one of North America’s most extensive commuter rail and subway networks, Greater Boston has some of the least-dense areas around transit stations, according to a new report.
With massive patches of slow zones now mostly repaired, MBTA officials have set their sights on pushing some subway speeds to higher levels as one of the next major goals as a way to improve capacity on the lines’ outer stretches.
Gov. Maura Healey proposed increasing state spending to more than $62 billion next fiscal year, relying on burgeoning income tax collections from the state’s wealthiest and a slew of other budget-balancing strategies in a spending plan unveiled Wednesday.
Healey promised that the report’s recommendations and her transit funding plan are no longer “kicking the can down the road” by underfunding transit and roads. But task force members say new revenue options will still be needed in the future.
Gov. Maura Healey says she’ll lean heavily on higher-than-expected returns from the state Millionaires Tax to keep the MBTA from going broke in the coming fiscal year, while setting three-quarters of a billion dollars aside for capital investments like bridges and rail lines.
Massachusetts stands at a critical juncture for the future of its commuter rail system. Ridership has essentially recovered and a key decision is looming that could dramatically help lower traffic and produce more homes.
The MBTA drained its reserves to balance its fiscal year 2025 budget, and officials project the agency will face a roughly $700 million gap in the next fiscal year that begins July 1, thanks in part to underperforming sales tax revenue.
After missing its Dec. 31 deadline to finish its work, the task force Gov. Maura Healey created to recommend transportation funding reforms will hold its final meeting Tuesday.
The task force Gov. Maura Healey created to propose a new funding model for transportation in Massachusetts has missed its end-of-2024 deadline, and sources say the concepts currently being bandied about fall well short of what some had been hoping for.
Motor vehicles that stop or park in bus-only lanes could face fines ranging from $25 to $125, while those parked at bus stops could be fined $100 under the bill.
But problems on the Red Line Monday morning cast a shadow over officials’ celebratory mood as they gathered for a press conference to promote the elimination of all slow zones on the MBTA subway network “for the first time in 20 years.”
MBTA officials will soon have to decide how to structure the contract with the outside firm that will convert its suburban train system to “regional rail,” a step that has ramifications for the project’s cost.
The coming months will determine whether we continue transforming to meet our goals for transit, climate emissions and economic growth, or if we’ll stall out.
State officials are racing to lock in federal funding amid concerns that the incoming Republican administration may try to punish the heavily Democratic Bay State — but stakeholders still can’t agree on aspects of the design.
Regional transit authority officials reported record ridership numbers on Tuesday and cheered the newly fare-free bus rides people are taking around the state and pushing them out of their cars.
MBTA budget-writers have warned the agency could run out of cash in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 amid a roughly $700 million gap, but the agency’s leader is feeling “optimism” about the prospects of addressing the shortfall.
