The build up of deferred maintenance and deferred capital rebuilds was decades in the making. But at some point you get systemic failure. That is where we are at the T. And it is going to take a massive investment and a long time to reverse the massive decay and decline.
This has got me thinking. The "decades of buildup" probably dates back all the way to the beginnings of the automotive age and the start of suburbanization, about 75 - 100 years ago, or 4 generations, this includes the start of the auto and oil industry lobbying to make privately owned motorcars mainstream in the 1920s-1950s, and the removal of streetcars and transit systems within. 3-4 generations' worth of investment was diverted away from transit since the 1920s and 1930s to go towards highway expansion and suburbanization, especially in the 1950s-1970s era.
And it is going to take a massive investment and a long time to reverse the massive decay and decline.
This means to try to dig out the hole the MBTA is in, there is well over at least 3 generations of disinvestment in public transit, to catch up on. In addition, noting the Big Dig debt, there is a large amount of low density suburbanization and motorcar dependent sprawling infrastructure throughout Massachusetts compared to Europe. Being spread out thin with everyone required to own a private motorized vehicle, there's not a lot of revenue to cover maintainance liabilites of all that sprawling automotive oriented infrastructure statewide.
Because of this, only about 1.6-1.7 million of MA's 7.03 million residents live in areas historically served by BERy streetcars, and 2.5-2.6 million living in the MBTA's bus service district. This means the percentage of the state covered by rapid MBTA transit service is less than 1/3rds of the state. Yet, it is the state that will need to invest in the MBTA, not to mention all the highway maintance and low density roads littered throughout. The same goes nationwide, with so little US cities with intercity rail service or rapid subway service.
With this, it is tricky to gain full support to increase investment in transit. While there will always be city dwellers who have no choice but to hop on an hourly bus or an aging red line train, over half of MA doesn't live anywhere near an RTA or an MBTA bus or subway route. Much of the US lacks any form of public transit or intercity rail service. Meaning, there will always be a large porportion of leaders who have little to no interest in actually improving the MBTA. Therefore, new urban developments, say in like Woburn or Burlington, will continue be built with lots of parking and spread out thin, locking in more motorized auto dependency, and emissions and traffic for MBTA buses to contend with.
With this, I do agree that it will need massive investments and take a long time (on the order of generations or remaining lifetimes), compared to elsewhere, for the MBTA to catch up on decades of work. I am not sure, however, that there would be meaningful investments or improvements, even if a goal is set for, say, 2050. I do wonder if the worst of the transit death-spiral is yet to come, in the near future years.
commonwealthmagazine.org
