House Speaker Ronald Mariano, Gov. Maura Healey, and Senate President Karen Spilka take reporters' questions in the governor's lobby of the Massachusetts State House on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023. Photo by Sam Doran | State House News Service

Gov. Maura Healey said Monday that she believes the MBTA can be “safe, reliable, running on time, [and] running at speeds that actually get people there quickly” by the end of next year, and said Monday that revenue for the transportation system is “going to be the subject of a lot of discussion.”

The governor gave her latest assessment of the state of public transportation Monday on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” with co-hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan. Braude asked about the mid-November revelation that it would cost $24.5 billion to fix all MBTA assets that are not in a state of good repair, which is almost two-thirds of them. Healey wanted to make clear that that cost estimate is not the same as what it will take to provide better service for frustrated T riders.

“I think it’s important that there’s actually a figure out there. … That’s what that reflects, is a thorough assessment and to build the kind of public transit system that we want. That said, it’s not going to cost $24 billion to do what we need to do, right,” Healey said. “And I’m saying that because just a couple of weeks ago, [MBTA General Manager] Phil [Eng] released a proposal that basically – it’s more than a proposal, it’s a plan that I’ve endorsed – which basically gives the T a year to get all the slow zones eliminated, to make all the repairs, to make that T run safe, reliably, smoothly, and quickly, which is what the public needs.”

Eng’s slow zone plan, which was rolled out one week before the T provided the cost estimate for repairing its assets, will involve shutting down segments of all four subway lines in phases over the next 13 months to make fixes in areas where trains can’t run full speed.

The governor mentioned the shutdown of service on Green Line branches going west, which began Monday and is scheduled through Sunday, Dec. 3. The T said the shutdown is in place so its workers can make structural repairs at Boylston Station, reconstruct tracks throughout the Green Line underground central subway, and alleviate a speed restriction on Commonwealth Avenue in Allston.

“The reason we are doing that – and it’s a pain point for the public, and I totally get it – but if we don’t bite the bullet and take care of business, you know, it’s never going to get better,” Healey said.

She added later, “I hear it every day. And I know how aggravating it is. But trust me, as governor, this is so, so important. Because if we don’t make the repairs and get these trains running, our residents are going to continue to drive, our employers are going to continue to suffer, and people are going to continue to be frustrated. And this is, you know, it is a competitive necessity for our state.”

The $24.5 billion estimate for eliminating the state of good repair backlog is an assessment of “the whole system and all the things that could happen, maybe should happen,” the governor said.

“In the immediate, I need to have a public transit system that’s safe, reliable, running on time, running at speeds that actually get people there quickly. And I believe I can get there – we can get there – within the year under the proposal that GM Eng put forward. That also will take a lot of money.”

Braude pressed Healey on where the $24.5 billion to fully repair the T would come from. She said that “obviously, it’s driven by by revenue” and said that the matter is “going to be the subject of a lot of discussion.”

It’s not the first time the governor or one of her top transportation deputies has suggested that it’s time for Beacon Hill to revisit its longstanding debate around transportation revenue. During an interview on NBC10 that aired last Sunday, Healey said bluntly that “we’re gonna need more money in the system.”

“We have the funding right now to do what needs to be done over the next year. But, you know, there is a significant issue with the way in which the T has been funded, or underfunded, frankly, for many, many decades. And that is something that we’re all going to have to look at and address,” she said on NBC10.

The MBTA brings in money from fares, gets a state appropriation, is assured a dedicated portion of the state’s sales tax revenue and collects contributions from cities and towns it serves.  The T is also eligible to compete for substantial transportation funds that are newly available under an income surtax on wealthier households that voters adopted after it was backed by Healey and legislative Democrats.

A year ago, MBTA budget managers said the T could face an operating budget gap of as much as $139 million in fiscal year 2025, which will begin in July. By fiscal year 2028, they said, forecasts show the T could face a shortfall between $365 million and $543 million.

There are no easy answers to the T’s “fiscal cliff,” Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt said in mid-November, but given that there is a new governor, new transportation secretary and new MBTA general manager, it could be “an opportunity to have a hard, hard discussion about hard choices about what is actually needed for the T to function.”

Tibbits-Nutt said that “we want to bring in additional sources of revenue,” but acknowledged doing so “is going to be a battle.” She said she thinks any effort related to the gas tax “would fail again” (voters in 2014 repealed the policy of indexing the gas tax to inflation) and mentioned the legal issues associated with expanding tolling beyond the Mass. Turnpike and Big Dig tunnels.

“Everything needs to be up for discussion. But I think we also need to be very open and honest with with the Legislature, but I think especially with the communities – here are the things legally you can do, here are things legally you can’t do – and make this an actual discussion,” she said.

Lawmakers appeared on track to revisit the topic of consistent MBTA funding in early 2020, when the House approved a package of tax and fee hikes that Democrats estimated would have generated hundreds of millions of dollars per year for transportation needs. The bill died in the Senate without a vote, and the Legislature since then has not shown interest in revisiting the topic of recurring MBTA funding.

On WCVB’s “On The Record” last week, Eng referred to the state of good repair estimate as “a snapshot in time of our assets and the condition of our assets” and said the T is “not looking to say we need 24 and a half billion dollars today.”
“This is going to help us as a planning tool to be able to set priorities, to be able to talk about bigger-picture, longer-term needs for the T. Because the idea is to be able to use this now to have those conversations on long-term funding and the ability to prioritize capital needs/state of good repair,” Eng said.