General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

stick n move said:

An Act to allow municipalities to finance expanded transit options​

“194th Legislature (2025-2026)Introduced by Michelle Ciccolo

Allows Massachusetts municipalities to independently finance expanded public transit through local revenue mechanisms, enabling faster service improvements but risking unequal access across communities.

Bill H.3636

malegislature.gov malegislature.gov

Click to expand...

The bill you posted reminded me of S.2009 (An Act relative to regional transportation ballot initiatives), another way to let a municipality fund some transit improvements. It seems like both bills haven't really progressed.


Bill S.2009

malegislature.gov malegislature.gov
 
www.wcvb.com

Feds return oversight of MBTA to state after years of scrutiny

Four years after a withering federal report about safety aboard the MBTA, which sparked years of projects, oversight of the transit agency is being returned to the state.
www.wcvb.com www.wcvb.com
According to an announcement from the governor's office on Friday, the FTA issued a letter formally closing the final special directive, returning safety oversight of the MBTA to the DPU, on Sept. 11.
The FTA found in 2022 that the DPU was under-resourced and unable to provide safety oversight. Subsequently, the DPU created a Rail Transit Safety Division that now employs investigators, engineers, data analysts and lawyers. State officials said the division now conducts independent inspections of MBTA trains and facilities.
"As we take this moment to celebrate this achievement, we are grateful to showcase how important investing in our workforce, tracks, vehicles, and infrastructure is to ensuring the MBTA is the world-class system our region can be proud of," Interim Secretary of Transportation and MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng said in a statement.
"Today, the T is safer, more reliable, and more affordable for the riders who use it every day," Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement.
Click to expand...
 
TheRatmeister said:
www.bostonglobe.com

The T is spending millions to make the Green Line more accessible. Soon, it may have to redo its work. - The Boston Globe

The upcoming arrival of new Green Line trolleys is putting the T in a sticky position.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

Globe article highlighting how the new Green Line C branch stations will not be future-proofed for 14 inch high/225ft long platforms, likely requiring significant amounts of the current construction to be demolished and rebuilt in 10-15 years.
Click to expand...
Quite the interesting mischaracterization of the T the Globe went with here. This initial platform height raising does serve to make boarding accessible with the built-in ramps on the trains. They can't raise them to the full level boarding height because of the way the existing trains' doors open. The stations being rebuilt to the 8" height are completely inaccessible by wheelchairs today, and doing this work would make them all capable of being accessible with both the old and new fleets during the next half decade of transition period. After which they will still be fully accessible via the ramps just not completely level so as to not require deploying the ramps which adds ~30sec to the stop. Pretty egregious of the Globe to mislead riders into thinking the work the T is doing needs to be "undone" and wont be accessible by literally calling the new platforms "incompatible" with the new trains when they will in fact be fully compatible for accessible boarding. Calling it "poor planning" when its making all but 2 of the 70 Green Line stations fully ADA accessibly in less than 5 years. The C branch itself is aggressively pursuing a 12month timeline for 7 stations, which was the decision of Brookline to accomplish as fast as possible even if requiring extended shut downs.
This is some pretty bad reporting that can genuinely harm the livelihood of people, because like the person featured in the article, someone could completely move their life around thinking that they wont be able to access the T with their various assisted mobility devices over the next 10-15 years when the new trains arrive but the opposite is the case.
 
The GLX stations were all built to the same height as the C line stations are. According to the Globe’s BS take, the GLX will need to be undone to support the 8 inch height.

We get it John Henry, you think investing in transit is a waste of money…
 
TheRatmeister said:
www.bostonglobe.com

The T is spending millions to make the Green Line more accessible. Soon, it may have to redo its work. - The Boston Globe

The upcoming arrival of new Green Line trolleys is putting the T in a sticky position.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

Globe article highlighting how the new Green Line C branch stations will not be future-proofed for 14 inch high/225ft long platforms, likely requiring significant amounts of the current construction to be demolished and rebuilt in 10-15 years.
Click to expand...
It’s also not going to be a full demo - the current designs are 100% designed with the future condition in mind. They’ll basically lengthen the platform on one side, pour an extra 6” of concrete on the whole thing, and call it a day. Not trivial, but not a complete reconstruction.
Also, the T is only doing this intermediate step instead of waiting until the final condition is buildable because they did work at these platforms that accidentally un-grandfathered them from their ADA exemption, and the FTA is both mandating and funding the bulk of this work. If they were paying for this and choosing to do this themselves, it would be a bit of a waste - but they’re not.
 
thepianoperson said:
It’s also not going to be a full demo - the current designs are 100% designed with the future condition in mind. They’ll basically lengthen the platform on one side, pour an extra 6” of concrete on the whole thing, and call it a day. Not trivial, but not a complete reconstruction.
Click to expand...
I can tell you firsthand that they're not, although it's mainly the Town of Brookline's fault and not the MBTA's. Some of the station access ramps will need to be rebuilt because they won't be ADA compliant with 14 inch high platforms, and in some cases electrical equipment is being placed where those ramp rebuilds would need to happen because Brookline was stingy with its grants of location.
 
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