“LAST JUNE, at its last meeting, a bold vision for the future MBTA was laid out by the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB). The plan entitled “FMCB Productivity Report” leverages infrastructure investments to create a safer, more efficient, more modern, more frequent, and ultimately less labor-intensive MBTA system. But, this plan, and indeed an overall vision for the T has been stuck, and one of the main reasons why is the lack of a planning department at the MBTA.
Currently, MBTA long-term planning is the responsibility of the Office of Transportation Planning at MassDOT, a 2004 creation of the Legislature. That means the MBTA remains responsible for funding much of its own long-term projects, but not the planning of these projects. As the MBTA and Commonwealth prepare to receive billions in new infrastructure funding, now is the time to correct this historical error, and put the T back in control of its future… “
02/12/2022 | By Brian Kane