SOME POLLING HAS suggested that, when asked about Gov. Healey’s record, many voters cannot name a single outstanding accomplishment of her first term. For me, there is a clear answer to this question: She has saved public transportation in Massachusetts from imploding.
This has gone largely unmentioned and unheralded, but it deserves recognition as a significant accomplishment. Part of the reason why this has largely flown under the public radar is that there remains so much to do to bring our transit systems up to the level that users deserve. That makes it hard to necessarily see huge improvements in day-to-day service.
But Gov. Healey has taken crucial steps to reverse the downward trajectory our transit systems were on. If that course correction is maintained, it will make an enormous difference over the coming years in rider experience and in spillover benefits on roadway congestion.
These are critical infrastructure upgrades needed for our regional economy to thrive and grow. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has identified congestion as one of five significant problems hurting the growth of the Massachusetts economy. Better public transportation is the key to giving commuters and other travelers an alternative to some of the worst roadway congestion in the country.
For those who can use it, public transportation offers relief from the frustration and tension of driving in congested conditions. For those who must drive, persuading even a small percentage of other drivers to switch to transit can substantially reduce congestion.
When Gov. Healey took office, public transportation in Massachusetts was in a very sorry state. Decades earlier, two governors who believed strongly in public transportation – Republican Frank Sargent and Democrat Michael Dukakis – provided consistent support for it. Gov. Sargent initiated a reorganization of the MBTA and increased its funding. He secured legislation establishing 12 regional transit agencies to improve service in smaller metropolitan areas across the state.
He also began the process of taking responsibility for commuter rail service from bankrupt private railroads that had been steadily shrinking it. Gov. Duk, Dukakis completed the integration of commuter rail funding and oversight into the MBTA. He invested heavily in new equipment, increased service levels, and provided reliable, growing operating support.
Working with the Massachusetts congressional delegation and the Legislature, he secured major capital investments that extended the Red Line from Harvard Square to Alewife and from Quincy to Braintree, and rebuilt Orange Line and commuter rail infrastructure along the Southwest Corridor through Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and the South End. He also invested in new equipment for the Red, Orange, Blue, and Green Lines and secured the operating funding needed for more frequent, reliable service.
He provided increased funding to the regional transit authorities to support their efforts to increase service. When Jim O’Leary became the MBTA’s general manager in 1980, he skillfully used the management tools provided by the reorganization, along with the new capital investment, to deliver better service and carry out major transit expansions.
A customer satisfaction survey he initiated at the beginning of his tenure found satisfaction at just 50 percent. Eight years later, when he left the MBTA, that figure had risen to an impressive 80 percent. Gov. Dukakis appointed Tom Glynn to succeed him, and Glynn’s sustained focus on customer service helped raise satisfaction to a remarkable 92 percent by the end of the Dukakis administration.
Unfortunately, subsequent governors did not sustain that commitment to capital investment and operating support. The “forward funding” legislation enacted in 2000 sought to impose budget discipline on the MBTA by dedicating one percentage point of the state’s then-five-percent sales tax to the agency. But it contained two major flaws: The arithmetic was wrong: Th
