The MBTA has made important strides. It increased its operating staff by 1,200 since June 2022 and has improved its handling of safety and service issues that have plagued the Authority for several years. However, it still has a long uphill climb. The FY 2025 budget estimates the Authority needs…

Workforce challenges at the MBTA have received extensive reporting in recent years. Those challenges took on a new sense of urgency in 2022 when a safety management inspection by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) found that the MBTA needed to expand the size, training, and supervision of its…

It’s bad news no matter how you spin it. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, in a brief published in late December, called the situation “a sobering statement of how long and challenging the path to a well-functioning system is.”The MBTA says it will soon issue a report on the impact of the…

Massachusetts faces a huge question mark about how to fund the future of transportation in the commonwealth. And we need a plan.A new report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation described the challenge as “near insurmountable” given the billions needed every year just to fix the roughly two-…

“Given that the MBTA lacks sufficient resources to even manage the previous $10 billion SGR Index, let alone the projects in the unconstrained 10-year spending framework, an additional $2 billion in capital needs puts the capital gap at near unsurmountable levels … climbing to an average of $3…

On November 16, the MBTA presented an updated analysis of its State of Good Repair (SGR) Index, which measures the Authority’s capital asset needs, to the Board of Directors (here) in which it revised the SGR Index to $24.5 billion from the most recent $10 billion estimate presented  in 2019.…

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation report estimates that Massachusetts could maximize how many federal dollars are sent to the Bay State through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors Act (CHIPS…

A report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation released earlier this year found the MBTA must hire 2,800 workers within the next year to meet its budgeted headcount of 7,600 personnel. That is factoring in 1,000 expected departures from April to the end of fiscal year 2024.

Limited staffing means more safety issues, reduced bus service, and increased service interruptions system-wide, as well as stalled progress on fixing speed restrictions, according to reports by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation in April and the Federal Transit Administration last year.

An analysis by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation found that the T would need to hire 2,800 workers by the end of the year to ensure safety and progress on the system. MBTA General Manager Phil Eng, who joined the T in April, has said hiring and employee retention is among his top priorities.