Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll spoke at a press conference in East Taunton on Monday, March 24, 2025, celebrating the first day of service on the long-awaited South Coast Rail. State House News Service photo / File
Before a national audience of transit leaders on Monday, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll offered an optimistic rebranding of Massachusetts’ troubled public transit system, highlighting recent investments and reforms as evidence of a turnaround after years of crisis.
Speaking at the American Public Transportation Association’s TRANSform Conference in Boston, Driscoll cited “foundational changes” due to hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and 1,500 new T workers.
“First time in 20 years, no slow zones,” she said. “Think about that. That also goes to show you how underfunded we were for decades.”
The T has been plagued in recent years by service failures, derailments and safety breakdowns. Driscoll said it’s the oldest transit system in the country and “we certainly want to work hard to be the best.”
In addition to enabling trains to safely run at designed speeds, the T has also expanded late-night and water-based transit. A new surtax on high-income households is helping to drive the investments.
Driscoll told the crowd that Massachusetts is becoming an example for reform. “Use us as a model,” she said.
Major challenges remain. Just this year, a Green Line trolley collision prompted renewed scrutiny of the T’s safety practices. While the administration hit its goal to temporarily eliminate all slow zones, MBTA officials acknowledge that new ones routinely arise due to the age and fragility of the infrastructure.
Even more daunting is the scale of long-term needs: the MBTA faces an estimated $24.5 billion in deferred maintenance and modernization costs. And while expanded service hours have returned on weekends, late-night trains remain limited, and pilot programs in the past have failed to gain sufficient political backing to be sustainable. Riders also continue to report reliability issues, intermittent service disruptions and safety concerns.
