General MBTA Topics (Multi Modal, Budget, MassDOT)

themissinglink said:
www.cambridgeday.com

Coalition drops report on dire state of mass transit in Massachusetts - Cambridge Day

It’s not just an MBTA problem. A statewide report reported and backed by 40-plus organizations warns: “The current state of transportation is unsustainable.”
www.cambridgeday.com www.cambridgeday.com
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commonwealthbeacon.org

Healey task force on transportation funding will miss its December 31 deadline

The task force Gov. Maura Healey created to propose a new funding model for transportation in Massachusetts is going to miss its end-of-2024 deadline.
commonwealthbeacon.org commonwealthbeacon.org

THE TASK FORCE Gov. Maura Healey created to propose a new funding model for transportation in Massachusetts is going to miss its end-of-2024 deadline, and sources say the concepts currently being bandied about fall well short of what some had been hoping for.

Task force members were notified by email at 5:37 p.m. on Monday that the report was not being issued on Tuesday. The delay comes as Healey is preparing her fiscal 2026 budget, which is due to be unveiled in late January.

In July, Hayes Morrison, the state’s undersecretary of transportation, briefed the MBTA board on the task force’s progress and lowered expectations about its eventual report. She promised a “tool kit” listing potential revenue sources and revenue uses with no actual recommendations. Asked if the final report would rank revenue-raising priorities, she said: “We don’t think so.”
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We're literally sleepwalking into disaster. Someone posted this below on zombie reddit. 100% agree with the post.

Are Governor Healey or the upcoming federal administration even going to actually save the T in full?

At the very least, Bus Network Redesign, is that thing still gonna finish out its phased rollout?

EDIT: deleted one of the screenshotted comments in response to one of the replies below.

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Some misogyny in the post but it would be nice to feel like the Gov actually wants to do something here. But, need to see the task force report first.
 
fatnoah said:
Just adding a data point. Had to get a 10:30pm bus at Alewife and hopped on the Red Line at 10:03 with a little concern. I shouldn't have worried. Arrived at Alewife in exactly 20 minutes. I can't remember the last time I got from Harvard to Alewife in that time.
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Yes, I would rate all three HRT colors as running very well at the moment. I haven't ridden any Green Line routes in a while, so can't comment on them, but on the other lines, it's all smooth, fast, and frequent.
 
fatnoah said:
Just adding a data point. Had to get a 10:30pm bus at Alewife and hopped on the Red Line at 10:03 with a little concern. I shouldn't have worried. Arrived at Alewife in exactly 20 minutes. I can't remember the last time I got from Harvard to Alewife in that time.
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Whoa. If Harvard to Alewife took you 20 minutes, you had some bad luck and got on slow train. That's supposed to take about 9 minutes, and since all the shutdowns, that's roughly what has actually been happening. Here's stats from a recent weekday: Average travel time between those two stops was 9m 18s; fastest was 6m; and 90% were under 14m.


That does go to show how terrible the service has been that 20 minutes now feels like a victory. I'm just beginning to recalibrate for how long these trips should take, now that the track work is done.
 
Delvin4519 said:
We're literally sleepwalking into disaster. Someone posted this below on zombie reddit. 100% agree with the post.

Are Governor Healey or the upcoming federal administration even going to actually save the T in full?

At the very least, Bus Network Redesign, is that thing still gonna finish out its phased rollout?
Click to expand...

I know I said that line, but I do want respond that my concerns are not exactly the same.

Like in terms of full disaster, my concern is the worse case scenario have a concerningly high non-zero chance. That they are going to procrastinate, but until past procrastination, they put it off so late that we do inadvertently fall of the fiscal cliff. The danger of brinkmanship is allow stakes to get high enough, one of the times something will actually slip.

But I do think the realistic scenario is just last minute action and a kick-the-can scenario. That is not a worse-case-scenario, that is sadly the norm for decades. It will leave a deficit that will cause drastic cuts and fare hikes, but not one the MBTA had to close before.

Okay, a cut that leaves Eng being scapegoated, half-hour headways, and re-staffed in-house personnel in favor for on-paper-cheaper-but-in-practice-disastrous consultants-as-needed is possible - but realistically any kick-the-can will be enough that it avoids something that looks too obviously bad (like half-hour headways). Meanwhile if they something like reverse the personnel hiring, it wont affect ridership experience in a way we can immediately tell. I'm not a fan of the slow boiled, but it does avoid the most dramatic loss. It also buys time.

I do hope dialog do start ramping up. The sooner we actually hear discussion, the more hope we get a better timeline than what is speculated above
 
I don't think it would be easy to scapegoat Eng at this point. The shutdowns have been high-profile and the successes of them have been trumpeted. If there are serious service cuts because of a budget shortfall, there will be enough people screaming about it that Eng will not take the blame for the sins of the legislature.
 
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