Testimony to the FMCB: Create a Capital Program to Prepare for Stimulus Funding
February 8, 2021
Prepared by Tom Ryan, Senior Advisor on Policy, Government & Community Affairs | February 8, 2021
Right now there is a unique opportunity for the MBTA to maximize future federal funding under the Biden Administration and deliver meaningful improvements to the people of Massachusetts.
The MBTA should be creating a capital program specifically to be ready for Stimulus funding.
This effort would be to advance study, design, and engineering work on unfunded capital infrastructure projects at the MBTA.
We know that almost all of the transformational infrastructure efforts at the MBTA lacking funding and won’t be funded in this next CIP.
If you start now, with a focused effort, to be ready to receive future federal stimulus funds for construction phases, it is more likely we can maximize this opportunity with the federal government.
We are asking the FMCB to set aside 5% of all the emergency federal transit relief funds into a Stimulus-Ready fund, for the advancement of capital projects be related to 3 goals:
- Increasing transit service capacity,
- Addressing agency decarburization efforts
- Improving resiliency of the system
Only then we can actually have a chance to see this work implemented and benefit our region. This is great opportunity to work with our Congressional delegation and be strategic.
Please start now designing projects, because federal infrastructure funds will be available soon and the MBTA needs to be ready.
