MBTA officials warned Thursday of a “sobering” financial outlook for the agency, but voted to jack up spending by nearly 7 percent in an annual budget that funds mandatory safety improvements and an ambitious hiring effort.
People will see a “different T one year from now,” but T board chair Tom Glynn and General Manager Phil Eng indicated the public won’t see a difference in just two months’ time.
The MBTA has until Monday to submit an updated plan for improving employee safety and preventing trains from striking workers after federal overseers, who still aren’t satisfied with the T’s staffing levels, deemed their initial proposal “insufficient.”
The nearly 300,000 people who ride the MBTA’s buses every day could be getting some relief from the crowding and unreliable schedules caused by the T’s major staffing shortages.
Maybe the third time will be the charm for a proposed state commission to examine congestion pricing.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation overstepped its authority in a 2018 eminent domain taking for a South Boston property owned by Boston-based developer Core Investments, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled.
The “red flags are waving” across Massachusetts, with housing, transportation and migration patterns continuing to trend in the wrong direction, according to a new report.
The MBTA now has its first chief communications officer, a former top aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren and senior leader at the Boston Public Schools.
Cities and towns that help fund the MBTA are concerned it will be “impossible” to restore pre-pandemic service levels and that the agency might need to hike fares given the growing shadow of a budget shortfall that officials so far have failed to address.
It is essential that this new source of revenue be used to strengthen transportation infrastructure, and RTAs are key in realizing a robust transit system that delivers for all residents.
In a sharp break from their predecessors, Gov. Maura Healey’s recently tapped MBTA directors peppered agency officials with questions Thursday about budget woes and safety initiatives as they strive to get up to speed on the agency’s inner workings.
Calling for action to “stop the pain and suffering,” the parents of a Boston University professor who died when he fell through a broken MBTA station staircase made an emotional call Monday for strengthening safety oversight of the under-fire transit agency.
MBTA officials voiced concern about rising pension costs in arbitration hearings more than a year ago, according to a document released Wednesday that a union chief involved in the proceedings said was “out of date” because its provisions never took effect.
Their bill was previously unsuccessful in Congress, and efforts at the state level to secure funding for fare-free transit have gained little traction in the state legislature.
A former top safety executive at both the Washington, D.C. and New York City public transit systems will oversee safety issues at MassDOT, overseeing both the MBTA and the state’s highway system.
Fixes to the T need to go beyond just new leadership and an increased workforce. We also need to explore new approaches to capital projects, service delivery and funding plans.
MBTA overseers want to press ahead with a budget that uses hundreds of millions of dollars in one-time funding to boost the agency’s spending by nearly 7 percent next fiscal year, much of it on new safety and training initiatives.
Following months of calls from transit advocates to replace members of the MBTA board of directors, Gov. Maura Healey announced early Friday morning that she was replacing the board’s chair and two others appointed by former Gov. Charlie Baker.
Officials will end service early on several nights in the next month to accelerate necessary repairs, but transit advocates called the plan “untennable” in light of upcoming Sumner Tunnel closures.
Before the pandemic, traffic congestion cost the region’s economy over $4 billion in lost productivity – and it’s only gotten worse. But there is an alternative, if the Healey administration and the legislature seize the moment.
