I GUESS EVERY ORGANIZATION needs a mission statement. So in 2010, the senior staff of the newly created MassDOT was taking a crack at it, one day, around the secretary’s conference table. One long-serving transportation bureaucrat suggested that the mission should be: To run the best transportation system in the country. Others at the table […]
Tracking Transportation
Posted inTransportation
MBTA dumps Green Line contractors
THE MBTA ON THURSDAY CANCELED THE CONTRACTS of the four major firms working on the Green Line extension and announced it was also going to shake up its own internal project management team. The decision was made after the MassDOT board and the T’s Fiscal Management and Control Board went into executive session on Wednesday […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Red Line train goes 4 stops without operator
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A 51-year-old Red Line motorman who saw his train exiting Braintree Station without anyone at the controls early Thursday morning quickly alerted MBTA personnel at the station, officials told reporters. Operating in what’s known as “bypass mode” to move beyond a faulty signal, the train did not have its collision avoidance […]
Posted inTransportation
State begins pruning Green Line extension
STATE OFFICIALS TURNED TO OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS on Wednesday for help in deciding whether they should build the Green Line extension to Somerville and also ordered the MBTA not to approve any more spending on the project over the next three months without their approval. One of the consultants characterized the Green Line extension in a […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
A tale of two transit systems
OUR FUTURE, ROBERT KENNEDY ONCE SAID, lies beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. This was an optimistic view of our ability to anticipate (rather than predict) the future, and act decisively upon it. Anticipating the future – understanding trends, changing paradigms and preferences, shifting demographics – is easier to do […]
Posted inTransportation
T refuses to release Green Line report
STATE TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS are refusing to release a consultant’s report on what went wrong with a contract for the Green Line extension to Somerville, saying the document “was prepared under direction of counsel and is attorney-client privileged.” The consultant, Berkeley Research Group, concluded the MBTA’s contractor “worked the system” to its advantage and the state […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Consultant: T got snookered on Green Line
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE STATE ENABLED a major contracting group to take advantage of it, leading to ballooning Green Line Extension costs, according to a consultant brought in to assess what went wrong. “We allowed them to work the system,” said Brian Lang, a member of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board, summarizing the […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Rosenberg warns T on fare hike
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH MBTA FARE HIKES on the table to address a budget gap and repair backlog at the public transit system, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said Monday that any increases above 5 percent would have to win legislative approval. The MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board is exploring the possibility of raising […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Keolis GM knows winter is coming
GERALD FRANCIS, the general manager of Keolis, the French company that operates the MBTA’s commuter rail system, is a man with an ambitious plan. He wants to make Eastern Massachusetts home to the number one commuter rail system in the US. That seems like a tall order for a system that basically fell apart last […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
T bans political, e-cigarette ads
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT surfaced Monday as a central theme in two protests: one speaking out against an ad on the MBTA that some say is designed “to demonize Israelis and Jews,” and another urging senators to forgo a planned trip to Israel next month. After opposing viewpoints on one of the […]