(The following article by Mac Daniel was posted on the Boston Globe website on November 21.)
BOSTON — The MBTA will announce today that it plans to spend $29 million to build a long-awaited bus maintenance building in Jamaica Plain, $15 million to repair three crumbling Red Line parking garages, and $6.5 million to make the Green Line’s Science Park, Longwood, and Brookline Village stations more accessible.
The draft of the capital investment plan also includes $19.2 million to fix subway tracks and keep more trains running on time. Faulty switches that slow Red Line service and sometimes force the line to shut down will be replaced, as will wooden ties on the B and C branches of the Green Line.
General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said the plan is based on fixing problems, improving customer service, and increasing ridership, even though the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority must contend with older infrastructure, $8.1 billion in debt, and a fare increase in January that is expected to drive some riders away.
“The focus once again is trying to demonstrate to the public that we are spending money by reinvesting in the system to improve service to our customers,” he said. “Some of the projects may not be glamorous, but they’ll certainly help position us as a modernized public transit system.”
The plan includes the last installment of the $139 million Arborway Yard project, which is scheduled to open in about five years. It has been a contentious issue for eight years, both for the T and the yard’s neighbors, who pressed for an enclosed repair shop and storage garage for 118 buses and for an 8-acre buffer to shield them from noise and allow for affordable housing.
“After eight years of work in the community, we feel like we’re really close to realizing what we’ve all been working for so hard,” said Henry Allen, chairman of the Community Planning Committee for the Arborway Yard, the neighborhood group that has led the effort.
The site was once 18 acres of unused property at the corner of Washington Street and the Arborway just northeast of the Forest Hills MBTA Station. Mayor Thomas M. Menino has made revitalization of the neighborhood one of his top priorities.
“Fully funding this site will not only provide a cleaner bus facility to service our citizens, but it will also provide numerous other amenities to improve the quality of life in the local neighborhood,” Menino said through a spokeswoman. “We anxiously await further plans for the site.”
The $15 million for repairs to the parking garages at Quincy, Quincy Adams, and Alewife stations on the Red Line will include better lighting and signs and, at Alewife, replacements for worn expansion joints between concrete slabs that commuters have said have become a safety hazard.
Catherine Moore, 56, of Stoneham said repairs and the addition of parking lots on the T is a must. “How can they be complaining about ridership if the folks who can drive to the T can’t find any place to park?” asked the Orange Line commuter.
The $334 million proposal is funded, but will go through nine public hearings between Nov. 29 and Dec. 14 in communities served by the T (comments can be sent to cipinfo@mbta.com.) before the T’s board of directors votes on it in the spring. The list of projects also includes:
$3 million to design a new bus maintenance facility at Wellington Station in Medford, allowing the T to close the outdated Fellsway garage.
$2.5 million to buy new parts that officials say will help bus batteries operate more efficiently, enabling buses to meet posted schedules and idle less.
$2.4 million to expand commuter rail and subway parking lots, and a separate $12 million to add 1,200-space parking garage to the North Quincy station.
$1.3 million to complete the closing and demolition of the former MBTA power plant in South Boston.
Overall, nearly 70 percent of the proposed capital budget for the next five years is being spent to repair and maintain infrastructure.
The plan, which covers July 2007 to June 2008, is being announced a little more than a week after the MBTA board voted to approve the T’s second set of fare hikes in three years over the objections of top elected officials and rider advocacy groups.
The fare hike, which takes effect Jan. 1, raises the price of subway and trolley tickets from $1.25 to $1.70, bus fares from 90 cents to $1.25, and commuter rail passes between 22 percent and 28 percent.
The T expects to lose thousands of riders as a result of the increase, a loss the authority can’t afford as ridership continues to lag. The system carries about 1.1 million riders on the average workday.
Grabauskas said the capital spending is meant to keep riders and attract new ones by making service more dependable and accessible.
Delays on the subway system, especially on the Red Line and a problematic area of aging switches in South Boston, “are a direct result of the age of the infrastructure,” he said.
“This is almost $20 million to fix this problem.”