Politics

Seth Moulton: Public transit deserves same attention, investment as Logan improvements

"We need to invest more. A lot more.”

Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe, File

October 6, 2022

Rep. Seth Moulton is calling for greater equity in the way money is invested in transportation improvements, contrasting how much is being spent per passenger on the MBTA with what is being directed to benefit international travelers at Logan Airport.

Moulton and the MBTA:

Rep. Seth Moulton calls for ‘top-to-bottom’ overhaul of MBTA after federal safety report

The Massachusetts congressman, who has been vocal in his criticism of the MBTA’s operations, noted in a Wednesday op-ed in the Boston Globe that the $700 million of federal and state funding for improvements at Logan’s Terminal E breaks down to an investment of about $130 per passenger. Meanwhile, he calculated that the cost of the MBTA’s $189 million Orange Line shutdown worked out to about $3.13 per passenger.

“Is that equity?” Moulton wrote. “A world-class city like Boston deserves a world-class international airport. But the people of Massachusetts also deserve a world-class transit system. That’s what we got in 1897 when Boston built the first subway in America. But many parts of the T have barely been upgraded in the 125 years since.”

Regarding the recent Orange Line shutdown, Moulton argued that, “Expectations are so low that the $189 million project … will be considered a success if trains stop catching on fire.”

The congressman called on city, state, and federal leaders to “fundamentally rethink” how the region’s infrastructure — and people — are invested in.

“The basics should be obvious: The MBTA needs a culture change from an organization that ignores problems to one that proactively fixes them,” he wrote. “From one that resists change to one that embraces it. From one that shuns accountability to one that demands it. From one designed to protect its people from getting fired to one that protects the passengers it takes to work every day. But once the bare minimum is established in Boston, we need to invest more. A lot more.”

Read his full op-ed at the Globe.