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Combed Thunderclap posted:- Boston is a total shitshow right now, expanding its weekend evening service a few years ago only to throw it away. An extension of the unbearably slow Green Line up into Somerville is also a long time coming. On the bright side, the recent re-opening of the central Government Center station has been years in the making, and its modernist glass structure allows for excellent views of the ugliest City Hall in American history. The MBTA is in quite a sorry state right now. Last winter, the system shut down for weeks because of heavy snow which caused significant public outcry. Of course, Massachusetts had recently elected a Republican governor so instead of actual fixes the governor put in place a Fiscal Management and Control Board which has largely ignored the MBTA's existential problems, like its massive debt and state of good repair backlog. Instead, they've raise fares over LOUD objections, put certain bus routes out to bid for privatization, and cut services like late night. That last service cut was done without even doing an equity analysis to find out the negative impact on the low income riders who used the late night service and that got the FTA to lodge a complaint, but the service is still getting axed. The MBTA could get out of this rut if the state government did things like took some of its debt, flexed some more of its federal transportation funding, and raised gas taxes and implemented tolls. However, the problem with state governments in America is that no matter if they're red or blue they bias suburban and rural regions over the urban areas through overrepresentation in state legislatures, and those folks don't give a gently caress about transit and would gleefully watch it burn even if it inevitably takes their state's economy with it.
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Apr 1, 2016 10:05
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:24 |
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