MBTA Fare Increase & Service Cut Hearings

The MBTA has released a report of planned fare increases and service cuts.  The plan includes two scenarios which is a mix of high fare increases and few service cuts and the other with lower fare increase but with more service cuts.  Both plans will leave people who rely on the T for everything from getting to work, buying groceries or getting to cultural and entertainment centers in Boston.  The MBTA estimates that depending on where the fare and service cuts end up anywhere between almost 10 and 38 million people will be left without service.

The MBTA must be credited with doing so much with so little resources.  An agency that carries nearly $6 Billion in debt is able to move 1.3 million riders every weekday throughout their system.  That debt burden represents 30% of the system’s operating budget.  The hard part to swallow about that debt is that more than half of it came from a highway project that had nothing to do with the MBTA.  The William Weld administration took almost $3 Billion of debt from the Big Dig project and transferred it to the T.  The MBTA is not forced to pay for a highway project that puts more sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter and other pollutants into our air.

The other factor hurting the MBTA financially is the cost of fuel and energy to power the subway, trains, buses and boats across the system.  The T is the largest consumer of electricity in Massachusetts and feels the change in energy prices even more than we do.  The MBTA recently signed a $60 Million three year contract for electricity this summer. While the T has made great strides in energy efficiency and is even investing in wind and solar this is an area that the MBTA can do more.

The MBTA can sign long term power purchase agreements with clean renewable energy companies that save money over the course of the contract and allow the MBTA to do proper long term budget planning.  The T is currently limited to short three year contracts because neither the T or the dirty coal, gas, and oil companies know what the price of those fuels will be at the end of the contract, however, we know exactly what the cost of wind and solar will be long into the future.  Using clean renewable energy has the added benefit of removing dirty and toxic pollution from low income communities, like Holyoke, MA where the Mt Tom coal plant has been making people sick for more than 50 years.  The T has been removing cars from the road and helping air quality since service began and now can go further to protect our air.  You can ask the MBTA to move to clean renewable energy here.

Call or email your state representative or senator to fix the MBTA debt issue before it is too late.