Plans to shutter large parts of the MBTA system for repairs this fall are a welcome step towards getting our troubled transit infrastructure back on the right track. But it is wholly insufficient for fixing the transportation mess threatening to hold the whole state’s economy back.
The T will spend almost $28 million on the work, which will see all underground stations on the Orange and Red lines closed on back-to-back weekends between October and December. Several Green Line branches will be closed for similar periods. The closures will not impact Thanksgiving weekend but could continue into 2020 to allow for additional work.
While the plan does not rely on $50 million in short-term funding proposed by Gov. Charlie Baker to help accelerate repairs, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said that money – if approved by the legislature – would help get more done in the same time frame. Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Bob DeLeo should strike while the iron is hot and move without delay to shepherd Baker’s bill through their chambers.
The T’s plan is the kind of decisive, aggressive action business leaders and transit advocates have repeatedly said our transportation crisis needs. It’s also dramatic enough that the famously cautious Baker could use it as a shield if he wanted to avoid the harder work needed to move the state beyond its current transit problems. Voters shouldn’t let him get away with that.
Our worst-in-the-nation traffic makes it painfully obvious Greater Boston needs better ways to get around, and mass transit is the only way to efficiently build that capacity. A $50 million fund in Gov. Charlie Baker’s $18 billion transportation bonding bill that will help cities and towns implement Bus Rapid Transit-like features is an excellent first step. System expansions like a true, electrified regional rail network are even more important to taking from traffic- and climate change-causing private cars off the road.
Areas outside Metro Boston need help, too. The hundreds of millions of dollars the state will likely receive from the regional cap-and-trade deal for transportation emissions Baker is negotiating with other Northeast states should be directed to the state’s regional transportation agencies. Those systems must grow beyond their current role as social services if they are to expand their mode share and their local economies.
Cars give public officials and legislators an easy out when faced with changing development patterns – if a transit system fails to adapt to the changing world around it, car-based travel will always fill the gap, even if the consequences are congestion and carbon emissions. This time, let’s aim higher.
