Thursday, 4:30 PM
With toll hikes looming, turnout varies at public hearing
(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/file)
By Globe Staff
As the final vote on a proposed toll hike approaches, turnout has varied at a series of public meetings held by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
At the first meeting at a school in East Boston, roughly 14 people showed up and only about eight stepped up to a microphone to offer an opinion, according to Turnpike spokesman Mac Daniel. A few days later in Framingham, people lined up for two hours to tell officials what they thought at a hearing that drew some 50 attendees.
The Turnpike board gave preliminary approval to a proposal that would increase fares by 25 cents at the Allston-Brighton and Weston toll booths and 50 cents at the Ted Williams and Sumner tunnels. The hike has been scheduled for nearly a decade as part of the plan for paying off Big Dig debt and would increase the charge at Allston-Brighton and Weston to $1.25 and the Ted Williams and Sumner tunnels to $3.50, effective in January.
The plan will be the subject of another public hearing tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. at Worcester Vocational Technical High School. The final public hearing will be held at the Framingham Memorial Building on Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. The Turnpike board is scheduled to take a final vote Oct. 29.
In September, the board discussed increasing the $3 tolls on the tunnels to as much as $6 and hiking the $1 tolls in Weston and Allston to as much as $1.75. The authority put off a major toll hike in the hopes that Governor Deval Patrick’s plan to reorganize the agencies that oversee transportation will save money by eliminating redundancies.
