Special to the Gazette
The construction of a new Arborway Garage for a portion of the MBTA’s bus fleet has been on the drawing boards for more than 25 years — but it would appear that it may be another 25 years before the project comes to fruition. That essentially was the upshot of the message presented by State Senator Liz Miranda and State Representative Sam Montano to the members of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC) at the JPNC’s regular monthly meeting this past Tuesday evening. The T first proposed constructing a new Arborway garage in 1999 for its then-fleet of diesel buses.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among the city (whose signatory was former Mayor Tom Menino), state, and MBTA included the transfer by the city of its former pole yard land (which is adjacent to the garage) to the T, which in turn would transfer eight acres of another portion of land on the site to the city to be used for community development purposes. Jamaica Plain residents have long sought to use those eight acres for affordable housing and commercial space to benefit the JP neighborhood. That original project went nowhere. However, fast forwarding to 2022, the T, which was placed under a mandate by the state legislature to electrify its buses by 2040, renewed the project, calling for the construction of a garage facility that would be compatible with an electric bus fleet.
A sticking point with the JP community arose however, because in the intervening 25 years, the city decided it would keep its pole yard property for use as a DPW yard, which in turn caused the T to renege on its previous commitment to transfer eight unencumbered acres to the city for community development. The T was willing to transfer the land, but insisted on using a good portion of it for an employee parking lot. However, in light of the news presented by Montano and Miranda at Tuesday night’s meeting, all of the discussions pertaining to the garage are now a moot issue. Sue Cibulsky from the Arborway Yard Subcommittee of the JPNC’s Housing and Development Committee began the meeting by presenting an update to the group on the status of the project. She said that the MBTA has paused work on the garage because although the legislature has provided funding for the design phase of the project (which is close to 15% complete), it has not appropriated the funding for the construction of the garage. “Where we’re at now is not going to make anyone happy,” said Montano.
“The MBTA has not identified the necessary funds to fund the whole project.” She noted that the T budgets its capital expenditures in five-year cycles, but the Arborway Garage project is not in the latest five-year plan. “This has left us with a project that cannot advance and has pigeon-holed us in a lot of ways. We can no longer move forward with the community planning and process,” Montano said. Montano further added that this in turn has left the city “hamstrung” in terms of the proposed transfer of the eight acres of land on the site from the T to the city for community development.
“The MBTA is undergoing a fiscal crisis that will require a half billion dollars annually. Otherwise, there will be reductions in bus and train service,” continued Montano, who also added that the T still is under a legislative-mandate to electrify all of its buses by 2040 for which the new Arborway Garage would have served as a terminal for about 200 electric buses. However, without the funding for the garage, that mandate, which also involves issues of environmental justice for communities served by the T buses, also would appear to be a moot issue. “It’s bad news all around,” added Miranda, who noted “how bleak” the T’s budget issues are. “In FY 26, the T’s operating deficit will be $700 million and it is projected to grow by about $50 million per year, which means that the T’s annual deficit will be about $1 billion by 2029,” Miranda said. “The budget shortfalls in recent years have been patched by federal COVID money, but that patch no longer is there and the MBTA’s reserves are all but exhausted,” continued Miranda.
“We’ve invested almost $1 billion of the revenue from the millionaire’s tax in transportation and 50% of that is going to the MBTA . So we’re pumping a lot of money into it, but there still is a shortfall and the shortfall is growing. “ She noted that the garage will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but without the necessary funding to continue with the project, the T is not inclined to transfer the land to the city for community development purposes. “We’re in a situation now where your elected leaders are thinking about how we can work with our community groups such as the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council to address this issue to find funding, because right now, this project is a ‘No go,’ “ said Miranda, who then went into detail about the T’s budget woes. “Right now, the political framework we’re working in is that it’s really hard to get the rest of the Commonwealth to fund the MBTA,” said Montano.
“Even though we know it’s an economic driver and essential to the economy of Massachusetts, there are regional transit authorities competing for funds and a lot of resentment toward Boston for getting a lot of this money. It’s more than the fact we can’t find it. There are multiple competing factors as well.” “Governor Healy has expressed her desire to fix the MBTA, but with the current federal administration always barking at Massachusetts, it’s going to be a quite difficult two years to pull the resources we need to keep everything afloat,” Miranda added. “It’s kind of mind-boggling how we have these mandates for electricity, but we do not have a roadmap for how to fund these projects,” said JPNC member Sarah Freeman. Cibulsky asked Miranda and Montano about ideas for advocacy for the group.
“We all should be fighting for long-term MBTA funding,” said Miranda. “We all need to start sounding the alarm that the MBTA needs billions of dollars. There has to be a comprehensive plan that says that if we want the transportation of the future in order to build the Commonwealth of the future, we’re going to need to make the investment. “The MBTA has had a crisis with competent staffing for a long time, but I’m surprised that there haven’t been more dangerous situations. Committing to getting better staff should be a priority,” Miranda continued, adding. “MBTA chief Philp Eng has done amazing things in the short time he has been here.” Montano noted that the T’s present crisis can be traced to the lack of investment and funding by prior administrations over the years and that the T helped absorb the debt for the Big Dig project. “One of the things we noticed is that there are many worthy initiatives being proposed by the MBTA,” said Carolyn Royce, a member of the Arborway Yard Subcommittee. “There are lots and lots of initiatives, but these can’t go anywhere without funding, both for the way the T is operating now and how it plans for the future.” “It’s a big mess,” said JPNC member Carla-Lisa Caliga. “It’s not really fair that we are suffering because our prior leaders mismanaged the T’s funds. But the reality is that this project is not going to happen given the current administration in Washington, which doesn’t care about transportation for working people.”
“Financially we’re in a bad place, federally, state, and municipally,” concluded Montano. “Things are much less hopeful than when we started this process two years ago. We had made a lot of really good progress, so this is quite frustrating. But the bottom line is that the loss of federal funding has left the state with a lot of holes and restricts where we can allocate finances for big projects such as this.”