The MBTA caucus in the legislature (led by Rep. Sean Garballey and Sen. Pat Jehlen) has had the General Manager of the MBTA, Jon Davis, into the State House a several times to ask questions about the budget situation.
Mr. Davis has been very forthcoming with information and recently produced this very comprehensive package for us.
The package includes:
- The D’Allesandro Review of the MBTA’s financial condition.
- Information on parking lots and garages
- Information on snow removal costs
- HOV lane traffic counts
- A 10 year spending breakdown
- A 10 year revenue breakdown
- A 30 year debt service schedule
- An analysis of subsidy by mode of transportation
- Ridership data for the commuter rail
- Breakdown of savings efforts
- Alternative service reduction options
- Definitions of the service areas of the Ride
- Discussion of the E line decision
- A statement regarding municipal assessments for the T
- An update on reforms proposed by the Transportation Finance Commission
See also, this thoughtful paper about options from “A Better City”
Will – has there been any movement in the legislature to provide additional sources of funding to the MBTA? Any actual legislative proposals in development? I have not seen any indication in the news of the House or Senate trying to address this issue.
It’s clear that the MBTA Board has to take a position first. What we have now is staff proposals that are out for comment. Management is certainly getting a lot of negative feedback. From an accountability standpoint, it is important the MBTA figure out what they really can do with what they have. Once that has happened — expect early April — then the legislature may intervene.
Clearly the legislature needs to develop a long term solution. There is a building sense among many of us that we should and will intervene in FY13, but we have to wait until the MBTA takes their process a little further.