YOUR APRIL 7 editorial “T has higher priorities than year-round train to Gillette’’ is right on target. Yes, there are several worthy, and expensive, MBTA rail expansion projects on the drawing board today. Each would enhance economic growth and provide significant environmental benefits. But in the absence of money available to properly maintain our existing transportation system, we must pause expansion and control spending.
Common sense dictates that the current system’s safety and reliability must be fully funded first. The expense of new projects is not just in their initial construction but in their eventual operating and required long-term maintenance costs. It would be irresponsible to add burdens to the already overburdened operating and maintenance budgets of the MBTA without a steady, reliable source to pay for them.
We degrade the system when we add to it without adding a source to pay for it. You don’t add another room to your house if your roof is caving in. We must consider the safety and capacity of the existing system before we begin any extension, even the most worthwhile.
Given the environmental and economic benefits of extending public transit, we must and will expand — but only after the ways to pay for the current system are identified.
Dan Grabauskas
Boston
The writer is senior fellow for public policy at MassINC and former general manager of the MBTA.
