![]() ![]() “I know it is frustrating, but this is necessary work,” MBTA general manager Steve Poftak said in a media conference call. The closure is to accommodate work to prepare for the opening of the Medford branch, a 4.3-mile, five-station addition which will connect to that portion of the line. Green Line operations will be replaced by buses between the Government Center and Union Square stations, a six-station segment, part of which only opened in March. A detail from the MBTA rail system map shows the portion of the Green Line slated for closure, as well as the yet-to-open Medford Branch. 22, and will push back the opening of the Medford Branch by until November, the latest in a series of delays for that new segment. The Boston Globe reports the MBTA plans to pose a portion of the Green Line for four weeks beginning Aug. He lives in Dorchester.The T is currently vetting a series of fare reductions and changes - many of them targeted at low-income riders - that would cost the agency between $1.5 million and $1.9 million a year.BOSTON - The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has announced plans for another significant closure of one of its rail transit lines, just two days after saying it would shut down another line entirely. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He recommended drawing $55 million from the $145 million the T has set aside to provide matching funds for upcoming federal grant programs.īruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Tom Ryan, a senior advisor at the business group A Better City, urged the T to use a portion of the $500 million to launch a low-income fare pilot. Board chair Betsy Taylor said on Thursday she has asked T staff to brief the board on low-income fares at the February meeting. The previous MBTA board, the Fiscal and Management Control Board, had directed T staff to come up with two approaches to so-called means-tested fares by October, but the new board has shown little interest in the topic. Several of the advocates said a portion of the $500 million should be used for the so-called means-tested fare initiative. The biggest chunk of the money - $145 million - would be set aside to provide the matching state funds needed to qualify for federal grant programs that are expected to roll out over the next six years.ĭuring the public comment part of the board meeting, transit advocates, as they have at past meetings, pressed the board to adopt a low-income fare initiative, which would offer discounted fares to low-income riders. Some of the initiatives are vague, with one provision calling for spending $40 million on “real estate opportunities.” The plan sets aside $7 million for the design of a new Newton commuter rail station, $11 million for tearing down a decrepit MBTA garage in Lynn, $4 million to complete the construction of a second track on the Franklin commuter rail line, and a total of $20 million for pandemic pay for T workers, employee recruitment and retention efforts, and human resources staffing. It calls for spending $46 million on a long-overdue system designed to prevent collisions on the Green Line and $48 million for a similar system on commuter rail. Poftak’s plan calls for spending $101 million on three bus repair facilities in Quincy, North Cambridge, and Jamaica Plain and $11 million to overhaul a fleet of 60 buses. ![]()
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