TPM’s Elana Schor is reporting that transit got a bump in the stimulus bill passed by the House today — somewhat allaying concerns that mass transit would not get a bump commensurate to highways. And they’re only talking about $3 billion more, in addition to the $10 billion already agreed upon.
I’d love to hear from one of our congressfolk to see what’s in it for us. I’ll make some inquiries.
Needless to say, this doesn’t let us off the hook for pension reform at the MBTA, not by any stretch. In fact, it makes it even more important to spend that money wisely and “stimulatively”. But boy, is it welcome.
Please share widely!
it’s true that we’re not going to get any new lines from the stimulus, since they’re not shovel ready within 180 days.
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p>But, there are loads of MBTA projects which will lower operating costs or improve quality of service that are ready — everything from track and signal upgrades to new rolling stock to parking garages at commuter rail stations.
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p>I’d love to see them continue the process of rehabbing every single green line MBTA station above ground. Every time they touch a platform they lengthen it to 3 cars. Once they’ve done all of ’em, they’ll roll 3 connected cars instead of 2, increasing capacity in the overstuffed green line tributaries by 50% each, key for rush hour and Red Sox games.
The Senate bill is in general much worse (it isn’t passed yet; but we can expect it to be worse based on how the discussion is going). It’ll be crucial who is on the conference committee.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed!