Top transportation officials estimated they will need hundreds of millions of dollars to fix glaring safety issues at the MBTA and defended the agency’s transparency as they faced probing questions at the outset of a legislative oversight hearing.
The $9.75 billion infrastructure bond bill that cleared the Transportation Committee does not include any language creating a new rail authority to oversee a passenger train extension to western Massachusetts, bucking a prediction Congressman Richard Neal made last month when he and state officials announced a historic agreement to advance the project.
Lawmakers decided they need at least another week to work through the billions of dollars in borrowing and spending that Gov. Charlie Baker proposed to invest in the state’s infrastructure.
The state legislature’s Transportation Committee is gearing up for a busy fall, with public hearings on Gov. Charlie Baker’s $18 billion transportation bill and another session likely to probe Registry of Motor Vehicles failings.
