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Blog: MBTA

Opportunity, Transportation
July 5, 2018

Need a Lift?

For hundreds of years, the Tufts Medical Center has served as a research and teaching facility and a full service hospital for residents of Back Bay and the greater Boston area. Given the Center’s significance, a MBTA Orange Line stop was built...
Opportunity, Transportation
May 22, 2018

Love It When the T Listens!

It seems MBTA officials were listening to this March segment of Bloomberg Radio’s Bay State Business. During the program, I was discussing simple ways to increase MBTA revenue without imposing an across-the-board fare hike. Raising fares may make sense in some scenarios,...
American Citizenship, Transportation
February 5, 2018

2016 MBTA Bus Maintenance Costs up 27% Since 2011

Last spring, Pioneer reported on the MBTA’s out of control 2015 bus maintenance costs, which were the highest of any transit agency in the nation at $44.30 per hour of bus operation. A small consolation prize, according to MBTAanalysis.com, is that New...
Transportation
January 15, 2018

MBTA’s Green Line Extension is Getting Back on Track

According to Pioneer’s MBTAanalysis.com, the MBTA’s Green Line had over 64 million recorded passenger trips in 2016, the most of any light rail transit service in the US. Extending the Green Line’s service area into Somerville and Medford would vastly improve accessibility...
Opportunity, Transportation
October 12, 2017

Is it time to expand water transportation in Greater Boston?

A recent Pioneer Institute report explored the benefits of increased investment in the MBTA’s water-based public transportation service to meet the growing demand among commuters in Massachusetts’ coastal communities. In the brief video clip below, Pioneer Institute Research & Policy Associate Matt...
Opportunity, Transportation
October 4, 2017

Don't Stop the Momentum on T Reform

Today, Pioneer Institute submits testimony in support of MBTA bus maintenance and management reform at a hearing of the Massachusetts State Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight. The MBTA is proposing to outsource bus maintenance at 3 of its 9 garages,...
Opportunity, Transportation
April 25, 2017

Green Line Extension gets approval from Feds, but is this really the end of the headache?

The proposal to extend the MBTA’s Green Line from Lechmere into Somerville and Medford, which has been beset by obstacles at seemingly every turn, has finally taken an important step forward.  Part of an environmental mitigation commitment connected to the Big Dig,...
Opportunity, Transportation
March 1, 2017

The Power of Competition at the T

In 2015, right after record-setting snowfall shut down the region’s transit system, Pioneer developed governance and reform proposals to put the MBTA on a stronger fiscal footing. One of our reports concerned The Ride, the regional paratransit system for customers with disabilities,...
Opportunity, Transportation
February 24, 2017

Getting the T Back on Track

The reforms that the Massachusetts Legislature advanced at the MBTA just two short years ago are having a tangible impact on the T’s financial viability and operations. In the near term, more remains to be done to close the T’s annual budget...
Opportunity, Transportation
December 19, 2016

Pioneer Institute Statement On The MBTA Contract With The Carmen's Union

In February 2015, Pioneer Institute issued a statement citing the numerous problems that faced the MBTA and its riders. The release noted that the MBTA board, as then structured, had failed the public, resulting in a highly mismanaged system of mass transit in...