My top priority in the first leg of the 2013-14 session will be strengthening the MBTA.
The maintenance backlog and service challenges of the MBTA have drawn wide attention. But we need to do much more than stabilize the existing system. We need to increase the capacity of the busiest routes on the system. Much of the system is at capacity and congestion frustrates passengers and suppresses ridership.
There is strong agreement among legislative leaders that we need to address infrastructure issues, including the MBTA, in this session. My advocacy goal will be to assure that we achieve a solution that supports improvement, as opposed to mere survival.
For more background, see:
- The Senate Transportation Plan
- The Legislature’s Transportation Plan
- The Governor’s Transportation Plan
- Advocacy priorities — capacity expansion
- Overview of the options.
- Review of the MBTA’s financial condition.
- FY13 final package — impact on seniors and the disabled.
- MBTA Staff Recommendations for FY13
- Background materials supplied by MBTA Management
- MBTA Financial Condition and Proposed Service Reductions/Fare Increases (January 2012)
- Will’s perspective on MBTA service cuts (March 2012)
- MBTA Service Reductions or Fare Increases (July 2009 hearing)
- Listing of all news and issues posts related to the MBTA
Excellent resources on the issue outside this site include:
I ride MBTA everyday and was frequently delayed by equipment failures in the subway system.
Senator, I strongly support your proposal in improving the MBTA system.
What I can see is that there is a lack of competition in management and service providers. The introduction of Keolis Commuter Services LLC is a great step forward.
Adding more measures like this so that we can obtain more qualified/competitive service company and operation clerks.
I also ride the MBTA every day and there are breakdowns that delay service but so far not enough to inconvenience me too much. What is more annoying is the delays on the Red Line which makes it difficult to time bus transfers.
Kudos to the recent change in bus schedules out of Alewife…it used to be that all 3 possible buses I could take, the 350, 79 and 67 left Alewife at 2:45 pm every day which left a long dead zone if the subway was delayed by 5 minutes or so (which often happens), but starting in January the buses are now staggered every 15 minutes or so which fills in that dead zone and makes me very happy! Sometimes it’s easy to improve service.
Yes! The Red Line is also a problem. The Red Line is targeted for a major new investment in new vehicles. It will take a few years for them to come online, but things will get better on the Red Line.