T expansion on wrong track

SINCE 1988, the MBTA has been by far the fastest-expanding transit system in the nation, even as Boston is among the slowest-growing metropolitan areas and Massachusetts is the only state to lose population in each of the last two years. Predictably, the result of this transit spending spree is that the T is on the brink of financial ruin.

So what's the main recommendation of a new study from the Urban Land Institute and Northeastern University's Center for Urban and Regional Policy? Build more mass transit, of course.

About 30 percent of the MBTA's operating budget is devoted to servicing its $8 billion debt, the largest of any US transit authority. To make matters worse, ridership is slipping. This is particularly disturbing given the multibillion-dollar list of expansion projects secured by the Conservation Law Foundation as ransom for building the Big Dig. All but three of the projects mandated in 1991 are either completed or under construction.

In ``On the Right Track," Stephanie Pollack, formerly with the foundation and now a senior research associate at the policy center, recommends that the state take on about half of the MBTA's debt so that the T can drop its recent proposal for a fare increase and pursue even more expansion.

Pollack blames forward funding -- the 2000 reform that put the MBTA on a budget rather than have the state simply reimburse the T for what it spent each year -- for the authority's financial problems. Since the new system kicked in, revenue from the penny dedicated to the MBTA from the 5-cent state sales tax has fallen $113 million short of projections. Indeed, the economy tanked soon after forward funding began. But the legislation's authors foresaw that possibility and put in place a floor that guarantees the MBTA a 3 percent increase over the previous year's sales tax revenue.

The T is crumbling under the weight of extending commuter rail service to Worcester, Newburyport, and Plymouth, as well as the Silver Line, which serves South Boston and Boston's Washington Street corridor. The Greenbush commuter rail line to the South Shore is under construction. The multibillion-dollar cost of building -- not to mention operating -- the new lines dwarfs the sales tax shortfall.

The MBTA has been forced to rob Peter to pay Paul by diverting resources from maintenance to fund expansion, resulting in an estimated $3 billion maintenance backlog. Even if the state pays to build new lines, the T has to run them, and fares cover just 28 percent of operating costs. Most people who say we should invest more in transit might be surprised to learn that while more than 90 percent of trips in Eastern Massachusetts are in cars, over 70 percent of transportation spending is devoted to transit.

According to Pollack, ``From a regional economic development perspective, a moratorium" on new expansion ``is not an option." But after nearly two decades of the nation's most aggressive transit expansion, Massachusetts has fewer jobs than it did five years ago, an economy that is growing half as fast as the nation's, and housing costs that are chasing people away. Transit expansion certainly didn't cause these problems, but neither has it been the silver bullet for dealing with them.

Perhaps it's time to take a new approach. If the state assumes half of the MBTA's debt, all resulting savings should be used to address the maintenance backlog. The mandate to build the three remaining projects pushed by the Conservation Law Foundation, which vary in merit more than 15 years after being chosen, should be lifted.

Pollack writes, ``The lynchpin of the MBTA's revenue growth strategy should be increasing ridership." She's right. After nearly 20 years of rapid expansion, ridership is falling. We who ride the T almost every day know that the improved service that will result from increased investment in maintenance -- rather than more expansion -- is the key to bringing riders back into the system.

The argument isn't that the MBTA should never expand, or that every new line since 1988 has been a mistake. But actions have consequences, even in government. The expansion binge of recent years has devastated the T. Before there's more construction, we must restore ridership and financial stability with a singular focus on maintenance.

Charles D. Chieppo was a member of the MBTA Blue Ribbon Commission on Forward Funding.