Back in 2003, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) estimated it had a “state-of-good-repair” backlog of $2.3 billion (about $3.7 billion in today’s dollars). Proving that the people running the agency are incompetent, instead of fixing their backlog they decided to build a new 4.3-mile light-rail line that just happened to cost $2.3 billion.
One of MBTA’s light-rail trains. Although the MBTA operates several different light-rail lines, they are nearly all painted green and are known as the Green Line. Photo by Adam E. Moreira.
Congress became aware of the maintenance backlog for transit systems nationwide and since 2015 it has given out $26.65 billion in grants to fix tracks, vehicles, and stations. Problem solved, right?
Not exactly. Last week, the MBTA revealed that its state-of-good-repair backlog hasn’t declined a bit. In fact, it has grown a bit. In fact, it has grown a lot, and currently stands at $24.5 billion, more than six times what it was (after adjusting for inflation) in 2003.
To be fair, the backlog was only $10 billion in 2019. The MBTA blames the increase since then on inflation, which wasn’t expected, and on their system deteriorating faster than they could fix it, which was entirely expected as they’ve known that has been true since at least 2009.
(I also have to wonder how much of the increase is due to bureaucrats realizing that state-of-good-repair funding has become more popular with politicians, so they add everything they’d like to do, even if it isn’t absolutely necessary for safety or efficient operations, in the hope it will be funded.)
In any case, the real problem is they decided to build an expensive new rail line instead of fixing the old when they could have done so for just $2.3 billion. If that’s not enough evidence of incompetence, that new rail line, which opened in December 2022 at a cost of $530 million a mile, turned out to be “riddled with defects,” something the MBTA was aware of at least 14 months before it opened.
Rather than fix the problem (which was that the rails were laid too closely together), they are simply running the trains at just 3 miles per hour to make sure they wouldn’t fall off the tracks. That must have done wonders for light-rail ridership, which actually was 10 percent lower in the first nine months of 2023 than the first nine months of 2022, a period during which ridership on almost every other transit system in the country grew by an average of 10 percent. That drop in ridership is quite an accomplishment considering the new line increased Boston’s total light-rail miles by less than 20 percent.
My question, however, was: how could they spend $530 million a mile on a light-rail line and end up with such a defective system? I could just as well ask: how could they spend $530 million on a light-rail line when a few years before most light-rail lines cost under $50 million a mile? Both the high cost and the deficient results are signs of incompetence. Of course, the cost of fixing the new line isn’t included in the $24.5 billion maintenance backlog.
Clearly, the MBTA doesn’t place any value on competence. Why should they when they have cheerleaders like Senator Elizabeth Warren? When the new light-rail line opened, she admitted she was aware of the region’s maintenance backlog, but argued “we need lot more [light rail] extensions.” Of course, she has proven over the years that she has no comprehension of the value of the billions and trillions in government spending she always supports. With people like her signing the checks, why should MBTA bother to be competent?
Of course, everyone in Boston is wondering, “where will the money come from?” The only answers being considered by MBTA are various taxes including taxes “on the superwealthy and large corporations.” No one is proposing that the transit users should pay for it; in fact, the MBTA specifically says it is not looking at fare hikes to pay for rehabilitating its system.
I have an idea: scrap the expensive trains and replace them with buses. There is a market for the rails and may even be a market for the rail cars. Buses are less expensive to buy and less expensive to operate than most of MBTA’s rail system. In 2022, MBTA spent $6.01 per seat-mile operating its commuter-rail lines and $3.48 per seat-mile on its heavy-rail lines compared with just $1.48 per seat-mile on buses. Only light rail was a little less at $1.20 per seat-mile, but factor in the capital costs and costs of rehabilitating worn-out infrastructure and buses are far more cost-effective. Of course, that’s not being considered by MBTA either.
Rather than fix the problem (which was that the rails were laid too closely together)”
You mean, no laser interferometer to routinely measure the distance between track,
No level………No ruler, not even a fucking piece of string on two sticks. My music teacher had that thing with the five chalk or Now Five dry erase markers, But professional engineers cant keep track of track….
“Tight Gage”
The problems appear linked to metal plates that connect the rails to the wooden ties that run perpendicular. Those plates — which were pre-installed off site before the rails were delivered to the MBTA — are too close together in many areas, Eng said.
In April 2021, the MBTA received an inspection report from a firm named Terracon warning that tracks in a railyard set to be used for the extension were too narrow, Eng said. It appears that MBTA officials at the time did not view that report as a red flag and did not respond by taking a closer look at the space between rails on actual construction sites.
More than a year later in November 2022 — when the Union Square branch had already opened and the larger Medford branch was about to open — a scan found 29 locations where rails were so narrow that trains would not be able to safely run at full speeds, plus a “significant portion” of tracks where the gauge was tighter than construction standards but not bad enough to warrant slow zones. The T fixed those 29 defects at the time, Eng said.
“There was tight gauge in this yard facility. That was back in April of 2021, We also had other reports in November of ‘22 that indicated the widespread need to address more than just these isolated conditions,” Eng said. “Back in April of 2021, it’s my belief that it could have been, it should have been more proactively investigated prior to opening, prior to installing what we’ve done.”
25NEWS
Who Knew?
it’s all beginning to sound familiar.
the big dig, boston’s central artery project, was first projected at 2.5b in the early 80s as planning started. it finally finished in 2007 at a cost of 24b, draining every other project in massachusetts as even the magic voice of teddie kennedy wasn’t enough to get the feds to fund the boondoggle.
from the article:
you could buy the patriots, red sox, bruins, and the celtics and still have 7b left over.
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/mbta-repair-cost-comparisons/3193813/
out of towners, follow this saga. the laughs will be worth your time.
Better idea, Pave over the track and run Buses powered by the overhead lines.