With the number of slow zones decreasing and newly renovated stations, the T may be running better than it has in years. But those improvements have come at a tremendous cost, leading a watchdog group to state that debt is the MBTA’s most toxic problem and call the service’s $700 million hole “ the original sin of public transportation in Boston.”
“To see a report like this, to see that stretches back to the original elevated railways when they were assumed by the government from 1918 on, it is just kind of jarring when you look at the history and compare it to where we’re at here,” Mike Deehan, reporter at Axios, told Callie Crossley during the local news roundtable on this week’s Under the Radar with Callie Crossley. “So it’s just one of the worst — if not the worst — financial environments for the MBTA in decades.”
Financial issues are also plaguing families in the Commonwealth, and one company’s intentions to help those in need have recently been called into question. This week, Governor Maura Healey signed a spending bill that included language that would protect organizations like BlueHub Capital, which has been accused of predatory lending…