Lawmakers' plan seems to shrink public's role in overseeing T

But even when the T is not quite ready to discuss the size of its deficits or its fare increase proposals in public, it has to respond to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Advisory Board, which is often happy to share the news in public.

That board - which represents cities and towns that contribute about 10 percent of the T’s budget - will lose significant power under the bill passed last week in the Legislature that reorganizes the state transportation system. Governor Deval Patrick said Friday that the transportation overhaul “seems to be a good faith effort’’ on first review, but he has not yet committed to signing it.

The Legislature’s overall plan is generally receiving high marks from observers and transit watchdogs. But the decision to weaken the advisory board is one of several raising questions about the level of accountability in the state that brought us the Big Dig.

The advisory board offers a set of outside eyes on the T’s budgets and operations. The board has not been especially critical of MBTA operating practices, but it often raises the alarm about worrisome short-term budget shortcuts taken by the agency and warns commuters when fare increases are on the way.

“They have to approve the 25-year plan and they have to approve the budget. It doesn’t make them a super-powerful organization,’’ said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. “It gives them access to the documents, access to the staff . . . It gives them the advantage of oversight.’’

The Legislature’s plan leaves the board in place, but takes away its authority to approve budgets, meaning the panel will lose most of its leverage to demand information from the T.

“We have to carve out a very different role,’’ said Paul Regan, executive director of the advisory board.

The bill also does away with the MBTA’s own governing board, replacing it with a mega-board that will oversee almost all state transportation. That’s a lot of power concentrated in the hands of a governor, who, under the Legislature’s plan, appoints all five members of the new governing board.

In addition, the bill completely does away with two other advisory boards that review any deals the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority enters into when it sells or leases property or the rights to build developments on top of the turnpike. One board currently looks at air rights deals in Boston. The other concentrates on property in the rest of the state. The deals can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, given the value of real estate along the Commonwealth’s most important road.

“The one for turnpike air rights in Boston is critical to public process,’’ said Ned Flaherty, an activist who has been attending the board’s public meetings for four years. “They’re the last step in the public process for air rights, so things that fall through the cracks in the previous years still have an opportunity to be addressed by that board.’’

Senator Steven A. Baddour, a Methuen Democrat who is cochairman of the Legislature’s transportation committee, said lawmakers wanted to increase transparency and reporting requirements for transportation officials, but also streamline the process for making decisions.

The bill includes, for example, an internal auditor. But the auditor can be removed by the governor for cause. The bill also adds a new advisory board for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

Baddour promises a more aggressive oversight role from the Legislature and the governor and vows that the state has learned lessons from the Big Dig about transparency and rooting out waste.

Hello, tunnel motorists? Cellphones working again

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority reported Friday that cellphone service is once again working throughout the Thomas P. “Tip’’ O’Neill Jr. Tunnel - following a two-month hiatus.

That means the motorists who cut in front of you inside the $15 billion tunnel will probably be chatting away with their best friend. And it means you won’t lose the call to your mother midsentence when your own cell service dies without warning.

The cell service, finally available last year in the tunnel after years of delay, was knocked out April 11 when a flatbed truck lost a cylinder at the Congress Street onramp, causing damage to the tunnel walls and the fiber optic cables behind them.

Private cell companies pay the Turnpike Authority for the rights to provide the service and were responsible for the repairs. Turnpike Authority spokesman Adam Hurtubise said the repairs were completed recently and several tests confirmed service is running smoothly.

Please send complaints or comments to starts@globe.com Traffic advisories can be found at www.boston.com/starts.