Blue Ribbon Summit on transportation financing

With all the coverage of MBTA financing recently, we wanted to point out excellent material that came out of a summit at Northeastern University in 2010. There are some good ideas in here about T financing. For each of the most commonly discussed options, it includes the current Massachusetts policy, how it is used in other states, its advantages and disadvantages,…

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CLF editorial on MBTA financing

"The T Needs More Than Fare Increases" "T4MA objects to the MBTA's proposal because it attempts to solve a much larger problem of insufficient funding for public transportation exclusively on the back of transit riders, who are traveling in ways that reduce traffic and benefit the environment."

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Potential MBTA service cuts and fare increases could be brutal for Somerville

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The MBTA, attempting to deal with painful deficits, announced plans to raise fares and cut services. Two scenarios are presented, both of which are ugly. Scenario 1 relies more on fare increases, while scenario 2 focuses on cuts to service, including the elimination of 6 important Somerville bus routes: 80, 85, 90, 92, 95, and 96.
Key links:

Somerville Patch: “Your Thoughts: Fare Hikes, Maybe Bus Eliminations Coming to Somerville”

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The Green Line Extension was supposed to open today

Yup, that's right. Today was the original legal deadline for the State to open the full Green Line Extension. Then it got pushed back to 2014. Then 2015. Now they're saying it will be phased between 2016-2019. Sigh. There have been 7.5 years of planning (starting with the Beyond Lechmere study in 2004), many frustrating meetings, a lot of talk, but…

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New study on health impacts of fine particulates

An important new report from American Lung Association, Clean Air Task Force and Earthjustice (originally the Sierra Club legal arm) has just been released: “SICK OF SOOT – How the EPA can save lives by cleaning up fine particle pollution.” This summarizes a large new study which calculates the health effects of fine particles in the US.

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