At a public meeting yesterday held at the Transportation Building in downtown Boston an enormous crowd turned out to give opinions on proposals by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) to increase fares and cut services to public transportation.
At issue is the difficult reality that MBTA has a total of $5.2 billion in debt. In fact, the agency points out in a brochure they handed out to attendees, the MBTA currently has the highest debt burden of any U.S. transit agency. According to the brochure, “A significant portion of this debt originated from public transportation projects the state committed to build as part of the Big Dig; the rest came from other capital projects and maintenance."
Yesterday’s meeting, which was broken into both an afternoon and evening session, were two of 26 such meetings that are taking place around the state, according to an MBTA spokesperson interviewed by this Examiner. MBTA, she claimed, remains “fluid and flexible on what we can do” to alleviate the concerns being addressed at these meetings.
MBTA’s goal for now is to continue taking public comments through mid-March, at which time MBTA will submit its findings for board approval in April.
MBTA has, according to the brochure, in addition to its efforts to reduce operating and administrative costs, prepared two scenarios to close the projected deficit. Scenario 1 includes a higher fare increase and a smaller number of service reductions. Scenario 2 includes a slightly lower fare increase but larger service reductions.
These "service reductions" include elimination of commuter rail services on weekends and after 10PM in addition to multiple bus routes and ferry services throughout the state.
Whichever scenario it adopts, officials asserted yesterday, MBTA must balance its budget by the beginning of the next fiscal year, which begins July first.
Shuffled into the overflow room, this examiner listened to dozens of commenters express their frustration with the proposals. Issues of social inequality to congestion to not meeting the public needs of seniors and the disabled were expressed.
Despite the spokesperson stating that the all of the meetings would be recorded, Charles Planck, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Performance for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, who was fielding questions and concerns from the public, acknowledged that in fact only a summary of the comments would be made public as the decision unfolds.
Planck also explained that the goal of scenario 2 is to protect routes with the highest ridership.
One person questioned the extent to which MassDOT and MBTA is really taking the public’s comments serious and isn’t just going through the process. As that person explained, MBTA and MassDOT appears to simply “not [be] listening” to the public.
Dawn Hynes, a volunteer and organizer with the Eastern Service Workers Association told this examiner that she and the all-volunteer ESWA want to “make sure the state doesn’t stick the 99% with the debt of the fraudulent construction” costs of the Big Dig. The multinational conglomerates Bechtel and Balfour Beatty, the two giant corporations that supervised the construction projects, should be forced to pay these costs, not the public, Hynes said. The fact that the cost of “The Ride” will be more than doubled, Hynes explained, is unacceptable.
Indeed, the Big Dig debt is being dumped on mass transit riders.
For that matter, Planck made it seem as though there was not much else the T could do considering enormous debt MBTA is faced with.
Still, the public is fighting back. The public meetings are being filled with hundreds of people. Online, a petition started by a 33 year Boston resident named Michael Fiorentino has collected more than 13,000 signatures.
This Examiner interviewed Fiorentino via email about his reasons and goals behind the petition. He explained his reasons here:
“Having signed countless on-line petitions and sometimes learning they were effective in changing things, I decided to take a chance on circulating one. My hope is that after seeing roughly 10,000 signatures, the MBTA will realize cancelling weekend commuter trains will harm far more people than they imagined.
The petition itself mentions the importance of transporting weekend workers, allowing families to maintain contact, accessing the wonders of both Boston and Massachusetts cities and towns, servicing the poor, elderly, disabled and those unable to afford and/or drive a vehicle as well as not adding more air pollution. Since the petition offers signers a chance to add a message, hundreds of people have added their personal stories; some have included alternatives for the "T" to balance its' budget. As for myself, I'd rather see a slightly higher fare increase and additional taxes if it would maintain what we currently have.”
Fiorentino, whose petition is available online, increased its goal to 15,000 over the weekend.
MBTA will continue to hold meetings over the next month around the state. Click here to see the schedule.
Comments