All Things Travel: More Bad Times Ahead For MBTA
BOSTON (CBS) – The letters MBTA could stand for More Bad News Ahead, before the good times roll.
The transit authority board will meet Monday to discuss raising fares and reducing The Ride. The hearing room will again be packed.
This week was a bad one for the MBTA.
Gov. Baker's fiscal Management Control Board voted on Thursday to put a 90-day hold on moving forward with the Green Line extension to Medford and Somerville after hearing that the 4.7 mile extension could come in at a billion dollars over its current cost of about $2.5 billion.
The next day the MBTA announced it was cancelling current contracts with such big name Boston contractors like White, Skanska, Kiewit (WSK) and HDR/Gilbane.
None of the usual complaining took place over lost business and these companies hoped to continue working on the project. In some new form, the extension is expected to continue to be completed before the end of the decade.
Then came the runaway Red Line train from Braintree station. What was impossible to happen without a conductor at the controls took place with passengers on board.
Everyone's first thought was terrorism.
There was none of the year-long investigation by a transportation safety board. State Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack blamed the incident on human error.
In an ironic twist to Thursday's meeting at the State Transportation Building, with a standing room only crowd of over 200, three blocks away, a sparse crowd showed up to hear the details of a forthcoming environmental impact study by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration.
Aided by the success of the Acela trains on the Northeast Corridor, it is Amtrak's only profitable service. 700,000 passengers take the train between Boston and Washington yearly.
The Federal Railroad Administration is faced with the same problem as the MBTA and that is what to do next with limited funds.
Should they leave the current system as is with limited repairs, limited upgrade with new rail service to destinations like the Philadelphia Airport or a transition to a larger Amtrak system that might include Northeast Corridor trains from Springfield and Worcester.
Back at the State Transportation Building. with the weekend temperatures in the 60s, the MBTA was making final plans for the snow that was bound to fall.
