Moulton Lays Out Massachusetts Transportation Vision in New Op-Ed in Commonwealth Beacon

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a new piece for Commonwealth Beacon, Congressman Seth Moulton argues that the time is ripe for Massachusetts to put a plan in motion for a transformed transportation system: one that puts a realistic plan in motion for a truly multimodal transportation system that relies far less on driving and far more on options that will get us where we need to go faster than we can today. “Some will see our faltering system as evidence that transformation is impossible,” Moulton writes. “However, the $24.5 billion backlog represents aging assets that we will be replacing no matter what. We can either invest in solutions like regional rail that both address the sorry state of the T and enable a better future, or use the same old technology that fails to serve our needs.”

An excerpt follows and the full piece is HERE.

“Some good news for the Commonwealth: we have a talented new transportation secretary. The bad news: the MBTA just announced that it will take $24.5 billion to get the system back to normal working order. $24.5 billion is a big number, but it’s not shocking given the accumulation of decades of under-investment. Compare that to the $64.1 billion we spend every single year to subsidize driving in Massachusetts. The result? The fourth worst traffic in the world. 

Housing costs in Massachusetts are also soaring; the median rent for a one-bedroom is $2,500 and the median price for a single-family house hit $600,000 this August. The system is broken when people cannot afford to live where they work, and don’t have a reliable, affordable option to commute without a car. 

Instead of just repairing old highways and bridges, and restoring the T to what it was 50 years ago, it’s time to put a realistic plan in motion for a truly multimodal transportation system that relies far less on driving and far more on options that will get us where we need to go faster than we can today. Modern high-speed and regional rail and dedicated bike lanes didn’t exist when our 1950s highway-centric national transportation network was developed. Americans, especially younger Americans, want and deserve options like the rest of the world.

The closest thing we have right now to a comprehensive vision for transportation across the Commonwealth is the Transportation Improvement Plan, a document that simply outlines all the projects using federal funds. Take a close look and you’ll see that something as simple as electrifying the commuter rail, which cities across the world accomplished decades ago, accounts for only 0.61 percent of spending. New York did it a century ago.

MassDOT’s spending plan for the next five years is another example of how we haven’t been taking the right approach. Out of $15.7 billion in funding, 75 percent of it is for roads and highways. It is no wonder we have modern highways and antiquated trains. 

To solve today’s problems, everything must be on the table. We must look at integrated transportation challenges, not just separate highway or transit issues…”

Earlier this year, Congressman Moulton released a memo laying out his vision for Massachusetts' transportation investments.