By Meghna Chakrabarti (The Third Rail)

The MBTA proposes increasing fares 19.5 percent overall, raising the cost of a Charlie Card bus ride from $1.25 to $1.50, and subway trips from $1.70 to $2.00.

The authority announced the proposal in a document released Wednesday afternoon.

“Riders are going to be very upset about this,” said Lee Matsueda of the T Riders Union. “They can’t afford a service reduction. They can’t afford a fare increase. ”
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By Meghna Chakrabarti (The Third Rail)

Yes, it’s true we’ve got the Big Dig and its associated billions of dollars of debt. Few other cities can make a similar claim to infamy. Nevertheless, Massachusetts isn’t alone when it comes to dealing with a creaking, crumbling, cash-strapped transportation infrastructure. A couple of national stories this week illustrate the shared misery.
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By Meghna Chakrabarti (The Third Rail)

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority has four months to live. Transportation Secretary James Aloisi said Monday that the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation is expected to take over Turnpike operations in November.

“Starting November, there’s a new world order in transportation,” Aloisi said at a Turnpike board meeting Monday in Framingham. “The Turnpike Authority won’t exist any longer, and then we’ll take a look at what our needs are, but, I think we’re in a period of transition.”

The board of directors officially rescinded a major toll increase at their Monday meeting, one of their last. They unanimously passed a $430 million budget that relies on $100 million from higher state sales taxes to fill the Pike’s deficit.
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By Meghna Chakrabarti (The Third Rail)

Gov. Deval Patrick signed the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority out of existence Friday.

Patrick’s approval of a major transportation restructuring bill creates the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and now shifts attention to ongoing transportation funding gaps across the state.
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By Meghna Chakrabarti (The Third Rail)

The Legislature has approved a sweeping transportation reform bill that eliminates the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, cuts MBTA employee benefits and puts most of the state’s transportation bureaucracy under a new super-authority, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Lawmakers claimed streamlining the state’s various transportation bureaucracies could save the Commonwealth $6.5 billion over the next 20 years. But unions, specifically at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the MBTA, said they were being unfairly hit by the blunt end of the reform measures.
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By Meghna Chakrabarti (The Third Rail)

We at the Third Rail wish it weren’t so. But the backroom battles, horsetrades and handshakes have finally piqued our attention. That’s mostly because after months of sniping over meaning and mantras, where “reform before revenue” jumped from legislative lips and echoed down the granite halls, transportation reform might finally… finally… emerge from conference committee and land on the governor’s desk.
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By Meghna Chakrabarti (The Third Rail)

A soft-spoken mother silenced the usually talkative legislators on the state Joint Committee on Transportation Thursday.

“This silly device is all we have left of her,” Melissa Martin said. She held up a small black cellphone that her 17-year-old daughter, Amanda, had been using to send or receive a text message when she veered off the road in October 2007. The car struck a tree. Amanda died soon after, her mother said.

“The car was destroyed. The only thing that made it through the crash was this cellphone,” Martin told the committee. “Texting should be banned across the board, juniors and adults.”
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By Meghna Chakrabarti (The Third Rail)

LISTEN NOW »

Transportation Secretary James Aloisi says the MBTA will fast track a 15- to 20-percent fare increase that could go into effect this fall. Aloisi says that’s because the T faces a $160-million deficit, falling advertising receipts and increased energy and fuel costs beyond what the authority originally estimated for its 2010 budget.

“I want to solve for several years,”Aloisi says. “I think the only responsible and principled way to proceed here is to have a multiple-year solution.”

That is, no further hikes for two to three years. But in order for this one-time fare increase to cover the T’s financial needs over that time, Aloisi adds that significant service cuts are all but inevitable.

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By David Boeri (WBUR)

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Other than T officials themselves, there’s probably no one single person in Greater Boston that’s more concerned about the fate of the T and rail ridership in general than former Gov. Michael Dukakis. When he was in office, he invested heavily in the T.

He currently advises the Patrick administration on transit issues and, in fact, had just finished a meeting with Transportation Secretary James Aloisi when I caught up with him on the Green Line.

As governor, Dukakis used to ride the T to the office every day. He says people ask him now why he’s still riding. “Well, I rode it when I was governor, why wouldn’t I ride it when I’m not governor?” he says. “Not only that, I’m a senior citizen. And I’ve got my Charlie Card and 65 cents — I mean it’s the best value in America, so why wouldn’t I do that?”

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By Meghna Chakrabarti (The Third Rail)

LISTEN NOW »

The MBTA is one step closer to making significant service cuts, and possibly increasing fares, after the MBTA advisory board voted Thursday to slash the T’s 2010 budget by $160 million.

Members of the MBTA advisory board themselves call the cuts “draconian.” But state law requires the panel to authorize a balanced budget. Faced with a projected $160-million deficit, board members say they had to make cuts, mostly through massive reductions to MBTA wages and benefits. The T’s general manager, Dan Grabauskas, says that means future service reductions are all but guaranteed.

“If I’m really going to have to cut to balance the budget, I’m going to have to cut people, which means I’m going to have to cut service,” Grabauskas said. “So, it’s service cuts or it’s fare increases, or it’s some other source of revenue, and if that other source of revenue doesn’t meet up with our deficit, I’ve only got those other two things to do.”

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