55 Reps Stand Up for Meaningful Investment in Transportation

MASSPIRG praises 55 state representatives who stood up for a meaningful investment in our transportation system by voting against the short term band-aid fix. Is your lawmaker among the 55?

Kirstie Pecci

The transportation bill (H. 3382) passed by the House on April 8, 2013 fails to adequately address the state’s immediate, long-term transportation needs and crumbling infrastructure. After decades of underfunding, shelved capital investments, and a series of temporary band-aid fixes, the people of Massachusetts are ready for real solutions to the problems our aging transportation system presents. Instead, H. 3382 kicks the can down the road and does not adequately address our significant transportation problems.

Rather than the $1 billion transportation experts agree we need to begin to fix and modernize the Commonwealth’s transportation system, the transportation bill provides only a fraction of that ($300 million) for transportation in FY 2014. Having passed in the House, the bill now moves to the Senate.

Under the transportation bill, there will be no:

  • Funding to enhance and expand MBTA and RTA buses and restore all of the services cut since 2002. Between 2002 and 2010 the PVTA and the SRTA cut their service by nearly 20%, the WRTA eliminated nearly one quarter of its service and the MRTA halved its fixed route operations.
  • The South Station Expansion, South Coast Rail, or Green Line Extension.
  • Funds for restoring MBTA service cuts or providing late-night service. Four routes were cut and 14 others modified in 2012 alone, despite significant fare increases. This pattern has left late shift workers and students with no public transportation when they need it.
  • Needed road and bridge repairs, including the Expanded Accelerated Bridge Program (a coordinated effort to accelerate the repair and replacement of structurally deficient bridges in the state system), the I-95/93 Interchanges in Woburn and Canton, and the I-91 Viaduct in Springfield. DOT numbers indicate 436 bridges in Massachusetts are currently structurally deficient.
  • Replacement of aging Red Line, Orange Line, or Green Line cars. All 120 Orange Line cars, many of the Green Line cars and one-third of the Red Line cars are well past their intended lifespan of 25 years.
  • Critical MBTA power and signal upgrades;

The lack of meaningful investment in the transportation bill H.3382 will result in significant fare, fee and toll increases over time, increasing the burden on working families.

Even more concerning, the bill will result in the continuing decline of our transportation infrastructure. H. 3382 provides no new funding for capital projects, meaning that we will not be able to fix our roads and bridges, and we will not be able to address critical maintenance issues in our public transportation systems. Instead, the current proposal offers the public another box of band-aids for short term fixes.

Polling indicates that over 60% of all voters would be willing to pay $50 per person per year for a “sustainable funding stream for the roads network and public transportation system.” About half of all voters were willing to pay $100 and about a third were willing to pay $200 a year. Massachusetts residents support transportation investments to create safe, affordable transportation for everyone.

For these reasons, MASSPIRG urged members of the House to vote against H. 3382. The next step is to replace this band-aid bill with the investment necessary to move our 20th-century transportation system into the 21st century.

MASSPIRG thanks the following 55 state representatives for showing true leadership by voting “no” on the insufficient transportation funding in H. 3382:

Rep. Denise Andrews
Rep. James Arciero
Rep. Brian Ashe
Rep. Bruce J. Ayers
Rep. Frederick Barrows
Rep. Matthew Beaton
Rep. Nicholas Boldyga
Rep. James Cantwell
Rep. Nick Collins
Rep. Josh Cutler
Rep. Viriato M. deMacedo
Rep. Angelo D’Emilia
Rep. Geoff Diehl
Rep. Stephen DiNatale
Rep. Diana DiZoglio
Rep. Peter Durant
Rep. James Dwyer
Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier
Rep. Ryan Fattman
Rep. Kimberly Ferguson
Rep. John P. Fresolo
Rep. Paul K. Frost
Rep. Sean Garballey
Rep. Colleen M. Garry
Rep. Susan Gifford
Rep. Danielle Gregoire
Rep. Sheila Harrington
Rep. Jonathan Hecht
Rep. Paul Heroux
Rep. Bradford Hill
Rep. Steven Howitt
Rep. Donald F. Humason, Jr.
Rep. Randy Hunt
Rep. Bradley H. Jones, Jr.
Rep. Mary Keefe
Rep. Kevin Kuros
Rep. Marc Lombardo
Rep. James Lyons
Rep. James R. Miceli
Rep. Leonard Mirra
Rep. Shauna O’Connell
Rep. Keiko Orrall
Rep. George N. Peterson, Jr.
Rep. Thomas M. Petrolati
Rep. Elizabeth A. Poirier
Rep. Denise Provost
Rep. David Rogers
Rep. Dennis A. Rosa
Rep. Carl M. Sciortino Jr.
Rep. Todd M. Smola
Rep. David Sullivan
Rep. Walter F. Timilty
Rep. Daniel Winslow
Rep. Donald Wong
Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik

Authors

Kirstie Pecci