Transportation for Massachusetts, a statewide coalition supporting affordable and reliable transportation for a more prosperous Commonwealth, welcomes the Governor’s creation of the MBTA Special Panel as a positive step towards improving public transportation service provided by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

Transportation for Massachusetts, the Conservation Law Foundation and MASSPIRG today released their second progress report on funding and reforms created by the Transportation Finance Act of 2013. The report, Keeping on Track: Our Second Progress Report on Reforming and Funding Transportation Since Passage of the Massachusetts Transportation Finance Act of 2013, finds that significant transportation improvements have been made across the state in in the first completed fiscal year. However, the amount of revenue raised in the 2013 funding bill is still not sufficient to meet the Commonwealth’s ongoing and future transportation needs or to support the state’s economy.

In CommonWealth, Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone writes...

THE SYSTEM-WIDE MBTA failures during the recent snowstorms should serve as a call to arms for everyone in Massachusetts. Quite literally, our prosperity is on the line. I’m not talking about just the prosperity of metro Boston or the eastern portion of the state. I’m talking about the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The reliable operation of the MBTA is a bread and butter issue for the Bay State. This catastrophic failure of the transportation system in our leading commerce center threatens to undermine our economy.

Read the full article here.

We appreciate the leadership, energy and vision that Dr. Beverly Scott has brought to the job of MBTA General Manager. She has been a tireless advocate for bus and rail riders. We at Transportation for Massachusetts thank Dr. Scott and wish her all the best.

On MASSter List, George Donnelly writes...

Gov. Charlie Baker recited a fundamental natural law at a press conference earlier this week. “If I’ve learned one thing over the course of the past two weeks it’s that Mother Nature makes the rules,” he said. 

But there are other natural laws that are less obvious but more germane to the recent freeze of public transit service: Material objects disintegrate and fall apart over time. The technical term is entropy, the tendency of things to break down and decay.

Read the full article here.

In just a few days, 2000 people signed our petition asking the state to fund safe and reliable transportation. Facebook, Twitter, email, news stories and more are making the case that the MBTA was on the ropes long before the snow started falling.

The weather brought this failing system to a halt, and made people pay attention. Unprecedented system closures have made the point that we have a broken transportation system regardless of the weather.

By now, you’ve seen plenty of articles, pictures, and tweets about the MBTA’s breakdown in this week’s snowstorm, along with mammoth traffic jams, detours and delays across the state. After many years of underfunding transit maintenance, upkeep and upgrades, a crisis like this was bound to happen.

Our newest coalition member is the Berkshire Community Action Council, a Western Massachusetts agency with a mission to assist low-income, elderly and working-poor of Berkshire County towards achieving sustainability and self-sufficiency. 

Transportation for Massachusetts welcomes five new members to our coalition to support transportation investment and excellence all across the commonwealth.

We share the pride of many residents that Boston has been selected as the U.S. candidate to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics Games. We also share the concerns of many residents that the Olympics may divert urgently needed resources and attention away from the region’s and state’s challenges.