Fire at/on top of South Station
General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)
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Delvin4519
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The March/April update on the bus operator/bus service shortage at the T. Still 6% below pre-COVID levels (over 100 still left to fill).
| Date | Count | Vacant | Change | % of pre-COVID max | Max count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5/2/2023 | 1,622 | 201 | N/A | 88.97% | 1,823 |
| 6/29/2023 | 1,611 | 212 | -11 | 88.37% | 1,823 |
| 7/26/2023 | 1,548 | 368 (275 pre COVID) | -63 (-93) | 84.91% (80.79% BNRD) | 1,916 |
| 8/30/2023 | 1,559 | 357 (264 pre COVID) | +11 | 85.51% (81.36% BNRD) | 1,916 |
| 10/4/2023 | 1,572 | 295 (251 pre COVID) | +13 (+49) | 86.23% (84.19% BNRD) | 1,867** |
| 10/23/2023 | 1,644 | 223 (179 pre COVID) | +72 | 90.18% (88.05% BNRD) | 1,867** |
| 11/28/2023 | 1,642 | 225 (181 pre COVID) | -2 | 90.07% (87.94% BNRD) | 1,867** |
| 12/29/2023 | 1,635*** | 232 (188 pre COVID)*** | -7*** | 89.68% (87.57% BNRD)**** | 1,867** |
| 1/25/2024 | 1,697*** | 170 (126 pre COVID)*** | +62*** | 93.08% (90.89% BNRD)**** | 1,867** |
| 2/23/2024 | 1,714*** | 153 (109 pre COVID)*** | +17*** | 94.02% (91.80% BNRD)**** | 1,867** |
| 3/26/2024 | 1,728*** | 139 (85 pre COVID)*** | +14*** | 94.78% (92.55% BNRD)**** | 1,867** |
****/***The formula the MBTA used to calculate bus vacancies has been changed again this January, to exclude in trainees from the operational count (those in training will now be included in vacancies). No changes to historical data was provided by the MBTA, meaning the data since December 29, 2023 is not directly compariable with May - November data.
**Updated figure from the Boston Globe
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Teban54
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Moving this conversation about Secretary of Transportation Tibbits-Nutt's pessimism of transit expansions here. (The trigger of the discussion was her mention that she would not support having a layover yard in West Station.)
In earlier parts of the interview, she said she did not want to focus too much on "priorities", discussed "connecting all of the Commonwealth", brought up a tough but critical conversation of reducing Vehicles per Mile (VMT) at 15:00, and urged the public to hold officials accountable. (These are not all that were discussed.)
Key part that pertains to the discussion on transit expansions: "But expansions of the system just aren't gonna happen anymore. We just don't do those levels of projects. In the United States, especially places that have these legacy systems, they don't do these projects anymore. So I think spending too much time focused on a particular expansion project, I think can be very distracting."
My own interpretations
First of all, what she said in the sentence above is objectively wrong -- I have listed many examples of cities with "legacy systems" that are pursuing new extensions here.
One may want to give her the benefit of doubt by putting her words in context. However, I don't see much context here that would suggest a "yes, but..." view, or one that's focused on the short term -- the quote really feels to me more like a long-term statement of "we'll never build them ever again". Especially when contrasted with the immediately preceding point of long-term maintenance, and the immediately succeeding point of buses, specifically "building" more bus infrastructure and expansions.
At an even broader scale, it's clear to me that she has a stronger focus on immediate impacts rather than mere planning processes. While there are certainly places where immediate impacts are desperately needed, there are many others where early planning is just as crucial. Not just rapid transit, but also regional rail -- which she does seem to support -- and requires long-term processes starting now, even if electrification is "insanely expensive". We're already falling behind on that.
If you're being pessimistic and cynical: (1) The note on transit expansions may even suggest she might be standing in the way of the Red-Blue Connector, which is clearly the next project on MBTA's pipeline, and whose current planning cycle is crucial for this administration. (2) Her attitude on buses which is "build it and they will come" contrasts significantly with those on rapid transit that "just aren't gonna happen anymore", which is eerily reminiscent of the BRT fetish in early 2000s that gave us the Silver "Line".
To be clear, I am by no means trying to bash everything she said. In fact, the podcast does make me think of her positively overall, especially given her stances of reducing VMT (though one may argue that attitude had not gotten further down MassDOT yet) and accountability. This point on transit expansion is really the only one that I take issue with -- but nevertheless a major one, one that may have implications beyond rapid transit (which itself is connected to all means of travel).
I went through the painstaking task of listening to the podcast with Tibbits-Nutt again and writing the transcript of the entire section (about 5 minutes) where this topic was discussed. I did so to provide an objective account of what had happened, so that everyone can draw their own conclusions.
In earlier parts of the interview, she said she did not want to focus too much on "priorities", discussed "connecting all of the Commonwealth", brought up a tough but critical conversation of reducing Vehicles per Mile (VMT) at 15:00, and urged the public to hold officials accountable. (These are not all that were discussed.)
Host: I guess while you are in this current role, what is your vision for transportation in Massachusetts? I know that's a very large question, but what is that vision that you are chasing that you're pushing forward, and that you'll be trying to achieve every day that you are?
Tibbits-Nutt: Give people more options. Central and Western Mass are really, really important right now. They're building a full spectrum of housing, they're making the right investments, they're doing really well with their schools, they're giving people more options. I really wanna better connect them, not just into the T, but into other parts of the commonwealth. Same thing with the North Shore and the South Shore. Just thinking outside the Inner Core, and also pushing the Inner Core communities to build more housing. That's my goal, I want people to have options on where they live, where they work, where their kids can go to school. Just want people to be able to access a better life.
And, you know, we do really, really great roadway projects, I just wish we had less cars on them. I think there's been some really great investments in upgrading the T, making it safer, thinking more thoughtfully about long-term maintenance.
But expansions of the system just aren't gonna happen anymore. We just don't do those levels of projects. In the United States, especially places that have these legacy systems, they don't do these projects anymore. So I think spending too much time focused on a particular expansion project, I think can be very distracting.
I just would really like to use buses better. I would like to use local ideas, whether it's looking at extending a bike path, or setting up a smaller bus route when you see where people are living and where they're going to work and just using that data. But I think actually, even more important than that, is not focusing so much on the data of where people are going and not so much on the data of density: Build it. Build it and then they will be attracted to it.
So I think that does take a major shift in transportation planning, that's gonna be a really big focus. Like I said, just making everything a little bit cleaner. Giving people the opportunity, whether it's school buses, private buses, MBTA buses, to get battery electric buses. As far as the trains, doing the best we can to switch those over to electric, that's gonna be insanely expensive and take a really, really long time. But I think doing some of these interventions in the mean time are really important.
I don't just wanna plan. Plans are important, but then they usually end up on shelves. And this is coming from a planner. I want to implement things. My plans are very simple: I want people to have options of how to move, I want to build things, I want to test things. I just want to give people immediate impacts, even if they are small. Just give them something. And this is gonna sound so profoundly cheesy, but I actually 100% believe that: I want to give them hope. Just wanna give them hope.
I've had unbelievable opportunities in my life, and I've been very lucky. I did work hard. But I think there's also a bit of luck in there to come from a family where not all of my family members graduated from high school, and now being the Secretary of Transportation, that's wild. I want to make that pathway more accessible to more people within Massachusetts. I love the Commonwealth, I love it so much [even though] I'm not from here. I've lived here going on 20 years, met my wife here, my daughter was born here. This is my home. And I want to make my home better, I do really want to make my home better. Those are my goals, that's my priority. That's what everything is going to be focused on. How we'll get there? I think we'll figure it out.
But I think just being much more thoughtful about our investments, holding elected officials accountable, not letting them talk about projects and then not fund them, not letting them beat up on the T and then not give the funding needed to fix it. And I think making them deal with the fact that so many of them have every privilege in the world, so how in the world will they understand how much it means to someone to be able to live at a home they can afford, and get on a highway in which they don't sit there hours at a time. So I just want to fix it all. You know? Just want to fix it all. But I think I'm really focused on the first three months, and if we go as hard we can or as long as we can, and not stop, I think we can do some really cool stuff.
Overall, I just want to make the Commonwealth a better place to live, I want to give people more opportunities in their life, just want to do cool stuff. I think that wraps it up. I mean, it doesn't sound good if I was doing a speech or something, but I do: I think that's the essence of what I really want to achieve.
Tibbits-Nutt: Give people more options. Central and Western Mass are really, really important right now. They're building a full spectrum of housing, they're making the right investments, they're doing really well with their schools, they're giving people more options. I really wanna better connect them, not just into the T, but into other parts of the commonwealth. Same thing with the North Shore and the South Shore. Just thinking outside the Inner Core, and also pushing the Inner Core communities to build more housing. That's my goal, I want people to have options on where they live, where they work, where their kids can go to school. Just want people to be able to access a better life.
And, you know, we do really, really great roadway projects, I just wish we had less cars on them. I think there's been some really great investments in upgrading the T, making it safer, thinking more thoughtfully about long-term maintenance.
But expansions of the system just aren't gonna happen anymore. We just don't do those levels of projects. In the United States, especially places that have these legacy systems, they don't do these projects anymore. So I think spending too much time focused on a particular expansion project, I think can be very distracting.
I just would really like to use buses better. I would like to use local ideas, whether it's looking at extending a bike path, or setting up a smaller bus route when you see where people are living and where they're going to work and just using that data. But I think actually, even more important than that, is not focusing so much on the data of where people are going and not so much on the data of density: Build it. Build it and then they will be attracted to it.
So I think that does take a major shift in transportation planning, that's gonna be a really big focus. Like I said, just making everything a little bit cleaner. Giving people the opportunity, whether it's school buses, private buses, MBTA buses, to get battery electric buses. As far as the trains, doing the best we can to switch those over to electric, that's gonna be insanely expensive and take a really, really long time. But I think doing some of these interventions in the mean time are really important.
I don't just wanna plan. Plans are important, but then they usually end up on shelves. And this is coming from a planner. I want to implement things. My plans are very simple: I want people to have options of how to move, I want to build things, I want to test things. I just want to give people immediate impacts, even if they are small. Just give them something. And this is gonna sound so profoundly cheesy, but I actually 100% believe that: I want to give them hope. Just wanna give them hope.
I've had unbelievable opportunities in my life, and I've been very lucky. I did work hard. But I think there's also a bit of luck in there to come from a family where not all of my family members graduated from high school, and now being the Secretary of Transportation, that's wild. I want to make that pathway more accessible to more people within Massachusetts. I love the Commonwealth, I love it so much [even though] I'm not from here. I've lived here going on 20 years, met my wife here, my daughter was born here. This is my home. And I want to make my home better, I do really want to make my home better. Those are my goals, that's my priority. That's what everything is going to be focused on. How we'll get there? I think we'll figure it out.
But I think just being much more thoughtful about our investments, holding elected officials accountable, not letting them talk about projects and then not fund them, not letting them beat up on the T and then not give the funding needed to fix it. And I think making them deal with the fact that so many of them have every privilege in the world, so how in the world will they understand how much it means to someone to be able to live at a home they can afford, and get on a highway in which they don't sit there hours at a time. So I just want to fix it all. You know? Just want to fix it all. But I think I'm really focused on the first three months, and if we go as hard we can or as long as we can, and not stop, I think we can do some really cool stuff.
Overall, I just want to make the Commonwealth a better place to live, I want to give people more opportunities in their life, just want to do cool stuff. I think that wraps it up. I mean, it doesn't sound good if I was doing a speech or something, but I do: I think that's the essence of what I really want to achieve.
Key part that pertains to the discussion on transit expansions: "But expansions of the system just aren't gonna happen anymore. We just don't do those levels of projects. In the United States, especially places that have these legacy systems, they don't do these projects anymore. So I think spending too much time focused on a particular expansion project, I think can be very distracting."
My own interpretations
First of all, what she said in the sentence above is objectively wrong -- I have listed many examples of cities with "legacy systems" that are pursuing new extensions here.
One may want to give her the benefit of doubt by putting her words in context. However, I don't see much context here that would suggest a "yes, but..." view, or one that's focused on the short term -- the quote really feels to me more like a long-term statement of "we'll never build them ever again". Especially when contrasted with the immediately preceding point of long-term maintenance, and the immediately succeeding point of buses, specifically "building" more bus infrastructure and expansions.
At an even broader scale, it's clear to me that she has a stronger focus on immediate impacts rather than mere planning processes. While there are certainly places where immediate impacts are desperately needed, there are many others where early planning is just as crucial. Not just rapid transit, but also regional rail -- which she does seem to support -- and requires long-term processes starting now, even if electrification is "insanely expensive". We're already falling behind on that.
If you're being pessimistic and cynical: (1) The note on transit expansions may even suggest she might be standing in the way of the Red-Blue Connector, which is clearly the next project on MBTA's pipeline, and whose current planning cycle is crucial for this administration. (2) Her attitude on buses which is "build it and they will come" contrasts significantly with those on rapid transit that "just aren't gonna happen anymore", which is eerily reminiscent of the BRT fetish in early 2000s that gave us the Silver "Line".
To be clear, I am by no means trying to bash everything she said. In fact, the podcast does make me think of her positively overall, especially given her stances of reducing VMT (though one may argue that attitude had not gotten further down MassDOT yet) and accountability. This point on transit expansion is really the only one that I take issue with -- but nevertheless a major one, one that may have implications beyond rapid transit (which itself is connected to all means of travel).
kdmc
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Great analysis @Teban54 .
I agree that it's objectively wrong to say that rail expansions aren't happening any more. In fact, it's so obviously wrong that I have to think she must have meant something else when she said it. My own interpretation is that she is saying that major rail expansions just aren't financially on the table right now for the MBTA. And if we can take "expansion" to literally mean expansion of the MBTA rail service radius, then that would leave Red-Blue, RUR, and other improvements to existing lines on the table.
Keep in mind that, outside of transit enthusiast circles, many people sincerely have wildly cost-ineffective ideas like "they ought to expand the red line through Lexington next!". Even the BPDA proposed a freaking gondola to Seaport. That's not to mention that the state is actually in the middle an extraordinarily cost-ineffective CR expansion as we speak. So, Tibbits-Nutt might be trying to fend of those sort of expansion proposals, rather than "reasonable" things like BL to Lynn or even OL to West Roxbury.
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic. But, as you mentioned, she is on the right side of many other big issues: reducing VMT, improving bus and cycling infra, and building a lot new housing (explicity "not just affordable housing", which I was happy to hear). So, her anti-rail-expansion rhetoric is probably more of a hyperbolic way of taming expectations than something we should take literally.
...I hope. If one of us ever gets the chance to ask her directly, we should.
I agree that it's objectively wrong to say that rail expansions aren't happening any more. In fact, it's so obviously wrong that I have to think she must have meant something else when she said it. My own interpretation is that she is saying that major rail expansions just aren't financially on the table right now for the MBTA. And if we can take "expansion" to literally mean expansion of the MBTA rail service radius, then that would leave Red-Blue, RUR, and other improvements to existing lines on the table.
Keep in mind that, outside of transit enthusiast circles, many people sincerely have wildly cost-ineffective ideas like "they ought to expand the red line through Lexington next!". Even the BPDA proposed a freaking gondola to Seaport. That's not to mention that the state is actually in the middle an extraordinarily cost-ineffective CR expansion as we speak. So, Tibbits-Nutt might be trying to fend of those sort of expansion proposals, rather than "reasonable" things like BL to Lynn or even OL to West Roxbury.
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic. But, as you mentioned, she is on the right side of many other big issues: reducing VMT, improving bus and cycling infra, and building a lot new housing (explicity "not just affordable housing", which I was happy to hear). So, her anti-rail-expansion rhetoric is probably more of a hyperbolic way of taming expectations than something we should take literally.
...I hope. If one of us ever gets the chance to ask her directly, we should.