THERE IS A clear threat to our public transit system here in Boston, and it is not crime or “vagrancy.” It is the systematic clawing back of federal funding and the withdrawal of environmental justice and equity guidelines that seriously imperil how residents move.
On September 18, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy directed the MBTA to provide information, in two weeks, on its “actions and plans to reduce crime, vagrancy, and fare evasion on the transit system,” at what seems to be at the risk of losing federal funding.
There are no data to suggest that the fifth-largest transit system in the country is unsafe or overtaken by crime or vagrancy. Over the past two years, the MBTA has not only addressed decades-old operational challenges by eliminating slow zones, it’s also shown how its leadership has regained public confidence, with the commuter rail enjoying the highest rate of ridership rebound post-pandemic in the country…