On Thursday, the #MBTA released for public comment their SFY25-29 Capital Investment Plan, or CIP. (It's important to specify state fiscal years, because the Boston Region MPO, which is responsible for allocating federal transportation funds, uses the federal fiscal year, and the last three months of FFY24 are in SFY25 just to confuse everyone who's trying to cross-index programs and budgets.) The full plan is here: https://www.mbta.com/financials/the-proposed-capital-investment-plan-cip
There are two public meetings coming up in the next two weeks, and they're really crashing the schedule because this all has to be approved by the board and then integrated into the MassDOT CIP, and the federal dollars have to be approved by the MPO board in the next TIP (which is also open for comment now). I'm going to thread below a list of #MBTA projects which I think are worth some comment, and perhaps if you don't work for the T you could comment on them too.
The actual #MBTA CIP project list document is grouped by a two-dimensional program type rather than ordered by project number, which I think is helpful for browsing the list but it isn't always clear how projects relate to one another. An improvement in recent years is that the project clearly shows what phase a given project is in, so at least it's clearer when projects are listed that you thought were complete already. OK, my call-outs follow.
Since Angel Pena left, all regular public status reports about capital projects ceased, except for South Coast Rail which is being run through MassDOT's public information system. We cannot tell whether projects are making adequate progress unless the #MBTA actually tells us. This is particularly important for the very expensive AFC2.0 and Green Line Train Protection System projects, which have both been subject to numerous and costly delays.
P0018 North Station Draw 1 Bridge Replacement: A worthwhile project considering that MassDOT sandbagged North-South Rail Link several years ago. If the #MBTA had instead committed to NSRL (which of course would also mean electrification) then this $1.2bn project could be significantly downsized -- NSRL would have been completed for only 10x the cost and would be coming on line at approximately the same time.
P1005a Columbus Ave. bus lane phase 2 & P1005b Blue Hill Ave bus lane: Strong support for both of these. It's a bit unfortunate that for Blue Hill Ave., a high-transit-density corridor through an EJ community, the best fixed infrastructure the #MBTA can manage is bus lanes, when it had a streetcar and then trolleybuses previously. As I recall, BHA redesign has already received a discretionary grant from USDOT.
P1113 Bus Priority Project Construction: this seems to just be a placeholder; I assume the #MBTA has a list but want to see munis come to the table before committing to any one specific location.
P0261 Worcester Line Triple Track: this is a big and important project (which probably won't even start construction until SFY30, this is just design funding) but why are they pushing ahead with this when the second busiest station on the line, Back Bay, still doesn't have proper high-level platforms?
P0214 Franklin Double Track and Signal: This has allegedly been under construction for several years but there hasn't been a public status report on it since, ummm, 2021 I think? An example of #MBTA comms failure. They should be explicitly budgeting for at least monthly status reports on mbta.com/projects for every project big enough to require board approval.
P1257 Commuter Rail Infrastructure Improvements: Another project that is allegedly under construction but has never, ever, had any sort of public information posted, nor has it ever been discussed in an open #MBTA board or committee meeting. It sounds like a worthwhile project! But all we have to go on is literally the two sentences of "project description" in the CIP book.
P0752 Blandin Ave Grade Crossing: the description has been wrong in the CIP for years and I've complained about it before. The Framingham/Worcester Line does not cross Blandin Ave. What crosses Blandin Ave. is the Framingham Secondary, a state-owned freight line to Mansfield that sees a couple trains a day. Why is it even in the #MBTA capital budget and not MassDOT Rail & Transit?
Switching a Worcester-Boston express train to one that makes more local stops appears to have helped the #MBTA gain more riders – but Worcester leaders grumble that the change came at the expense of their city's commuters, who now have to spend 40-45 minutes longer on their rides to Boston:
Company hired to build system to keep trains on North Station commuter lines from slamming into each other sues #MBTA for cost overruns, project delays