Got tips? Send them to me via Signal, the encrypted messaging app, at 207-310-0728. You can also follow me on <a href="https://better.boston/@cmilneil" rel="me">Mastodon.</a>

PROMO-milneil

Christian MilNeil

A bar chart showing three pairs of bars (with a red bar for "expenses" next to a stacked pair of bars of an equal combined hight, with a green bar for "revenues" and a black bar on top of the green for "budget gap". The x axis shows three budget years: FY2026, FY2027, and FY2028. The y axis runs from 0 to 4K and is labelled "Millions of dollars". The bars get progressively taller over the three years, but the red and black bars (expenses and deficits) grow more than the green bars (revenue). The left set of bars shows $3,103 million in expenses, $2,864 in revenues, and $239 in deficit. The right set of bars (FY2028) shows $3,640 in expenses, $2,802 in revenue, and $837 in deficit.

mbta-2026-budget-forecas

Legislation

Healey Budget Bill Would Balance MBTA Budgets for One More Year

Elections and Politics

Another Year, Another Budget Gap: Gov. Healey Still Needs A Long-Term Solution for Funding the T

A smiling black woman with long braided hair wearing a black-and-yellow plaid patterned sweater

Meghan Volcy

A map of MBTA communities, with dark blue indicating compliant municipalities, blue striped ones indicating those that are conditionally compliant, light blue indicating zoning plans that have been adopted and/or submitted for review, red indicating noncompliant municipalities, grey indicating adjacent small towns whose zoning plans that were due as of December 31st of 2025, and white indicating inapplicable areas.

MBTA_Comm_status_12_26_25

Housing

MBTA Communities Act Holdouts Are Losing State Funding

A historic hand-drawn map of subway lines and stations in Boston and Brookline, showing a proposed extension of the old Forest Hills elevated rail line into Roslindale, West Roxbury, and Dedham.

Detail of OL extension proposal from 1945 Metropolitan Transit Recess Commission, credit Steven Beaucher:BPL

Should the Orange Line to Roslindale Be The T’s Next Rapid Transit Expansion?

A blue event slide titled “State Legislators Update,” with the Massachusetts State House in the background. The date, November 20, 2025, and time, 2:45 PM–4:30 PM, are on the right. At the bottom are photos of Senator Brendan P. Crighton, Representative James Arciero, and Carolyn Ryan, with their roles listed, along with the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and State Street logos.

State Legislators Update Event Cover Slide

Lawmakers Say Infrastructure Needs More Funding, and Congestion Pricing Should Be On the Table

A Black woman gestures while talking with a white woman seated next to her on a city bus.

Pressley Bus Ad

Rep. Pressley Lobbies for Stronger Transit Funding, Fare-Free Programs In Next Federal Transportation Bill

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Daily headlines

Friday’s Headlines Yearn to Breathe Free

A sidewalk buried in a messy mixture of snow and slush along a busy city street in a neighborhood commercial area lined with one-story retail buildings.

Harvard Ave sidewalk snow near Brighton Ave 01.28.2026

Walking

Eyes On the Street: Days After the Storm, Boston’s Sidewalks Are An Inaccessible Mess

A coach bus with a headsign reading "904 Pittsfield TC" and a logo that says "Link413" drives down the main street of a small city on a sunny winter morning.

Link413 in Northampton on Jan 28 2026 credit PVTA

Regional Transit Authorities

Link413 Launches Three New Bus Routes Linking North Adams, Pittsfield, Greenfield, and Northampton

Crowds of people in winter coats pack the platform of a Red Line subway station.

Red Line crowds on platform

MBTA

The Red Line’s Old Trains Can’t Cope With the Cold

A view down a long, straight two-lane highway lined with street lamps and newly planted trees. To the left is a large grassy area, several hundred feet wide, with rows of multi-story houses in the distance on the other side.

Fall River Davol St redevelopment land looking SE from Brightman 11.25.2025

MassDOT Begins Marketing Former Freeway Land In Fall River For Transit-Oriented Housing Development

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Educated at the Sorbonne and the Yale School of Drama, Gersh Kuntzman is obviously not the person being described here. We&#8217;re talking about tabloid legend Gersh Kuntzman, who has been with New York newspapers since 1989, including stints at the New York Daily News, the Post, the Brooklyn Paper and even a cup of coffee with the Times. He&#8217;s also the writer and producer of &#8220;Murder at the Food Coop,&#8221; which was a hit at the NYC Fringe Festival in 2016, and “SUV: The Musical” in 2007. Email Gersh at <a href="mailto:gersh@streetsblog.org">gersh@streetsblog.org</a>

Gersh Kuntzman

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Crossing street

Jarrett Walker is an international consultant in public transit network design and policy, based in Portland, Oregon.  He has been a full-time consultant since 1991 and has led numerous major planning projects in cities and towns of all sizes, across North America, Australia, and New Zealand.  He is also the author of Human Transit: How clearer thinking about public transit can enrich our communites and our lives (Island Press, 2011; updated edition, 2024). He is President of <a href="http://jarrettwalker.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jarrett Walker + Associates</a>, a consulting firm that provides advice and planning services North America.

Sen. Markey Introduces Federal Complete Streets Bill

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