The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority says it will cost $24.5 billion to fix the system’s many problems, according to an internal analysis released Thursday.
This cost includes repairs only and does not include system upgrades.
You can read the full report here.
“As we rebuild the MBTA infrastructure, restoring reliability and ensuring safety are our top priorities. Understanding and recognizing the significant resources required to return our systems to a state of good repair. is just one step in modifying our infrastructure to provide more robust and frequent service,” MBTA General Manager and CEO Philip Eng said in a statement. It is one of the oldest transit systems in the country, and while there are many contributing factors, it is clear that years of underinvestment have increased the cost of bringing the system back into good repair. ”
T conducted its first new capital needs assessment since 2019. Officials under the Baker administration estimated it would cost about $10 billion to replace all outdated MBTA infrastructure with modern replacement infrastructure.
The new estimate is nearly 2.5 times more expensive than the previous capital needs assessment, which officials say is driven by a combination of factors, including rampant construction inflation and MBTA assets aging faster than they can be replaced. It is said that there is
The authorities have also updated their methodology. As a result of changes to Company T’s asset management system, the most recent study counted 83,683 individual assets to create cost estimates, compared to 59,073 assets in 2019.
Poor conditions are most common on the T subway and trolley tracks. According to Mr. T.’s assessment, almost 90% of these sections (some of which were not able to handle full-speed running for months due to unresolved defects) are not in a good state of repair and cost It is said to be worth $2 billion.
The breakdown of repair costs is as follows.
- Equipment: $6.4 billion (35% of assets)
- Vehicles: $2.4 billion (55% of assets)
- Equipment: $52 million (28% of assets)
- Structures: $5.3 billion (22% of assets)
- Signals – Commuter Rail: $1.3 billion (80% of assets)
- Signals – Transportation: $753 million (53% of assets)
- Railroads – Commuter Rail: $1.2 billion (9% of assets)
- Trucks – Transit: $2 billion (89% of assets)
- Power: $5.1 billion (76% of assets)
Eng discussed the new assessment at Thursday’s board meeting, a day after Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbitsnutt said there was a need for “tough conversations” about funding the transit agency.
The MBTA said it is already working on some repairs, including track work on the Ashmont branch of the Red Line and the Mattapan line, which was completed late last month.
“We are committed to proactively addressing immediate needs, such as the recent 16-day outage for track work at our Ashmont branch, to provide a modern system that will serve future generations. Please know that you are here,” Eng said.
Kate Dineen, president and CEO of A Better City Business Group, called the report “confirmation of what was already clear to T riders and supporters: The MBTA suffers from a legacy of underinvestment, and the system We need more funding to recover.” Things are going well. ”
“Now is the time for the administration, elected officials, and advocates to come together and develop an actionable plan to identify new revenue sources and necessary investments to address this significant backlog.” There is.” [to] We will modernize, decarbonize and strengthen our systems against the worsening impacts of climate change,” Dineen said in a statement.
Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton also issued a statement Thursday, calling T’s announcement “the honest assessment we’ve all been waiting for.” “$24.5 billion is a big number, but not surprising given decades of underinvestment,” he added.
“While other transit agencies are building automated railways with high-speed trains every minute, ours has degraded to the point where it’s faster to walk in some places,” Moulton said. said. “How can we reduce the terrible traffic when we can’t even trust that trains won’t derail or catch fire? I spent the last year making fundamental changes to how the T operates as an organization. We asked for change. This is another awakening. Reach out. If major changes are not made, we will be dealing with the exact same problems or worse for years to come. . All of us in Massachusetts suffer from having a transit system, whether you use the T or not. We can’t trust it.”
The MBTA, which oversees the nation’s oldest subway system, commuter rail, bus and ferry operations, has come under intense scrutiny in recent years for a series of safety issues that led to a federal review and order to fix the problems. . Recently, the company has been plagued by low-speed zones, delays in the delivery of new cars, and a shortage of personnel.
The State House News Service and The Associated Press contributed to this report.