Transportation
Senator Brown sees transportation as an extremely important element in all long-term regional planning strategies. It ranges from the necessity of transporting senior citizens to the doctor or pharmacy, to regional school buses, to a regional transportation authority to provide public transportation, to businesses in each downtown. Sen. Brown has been striving to make transportation available to all. He has worked to ease traffic congestion, as well as promote conservation to reduce pollution. He sees the importance of smart transportation policy, and is fighting to reduce tolls on Metro-West residents who for years have unfairly paid for the Big Dig.
► Expanding Access to Regional Transportation – Senator Brown co-sponsored and passed legislation to allow for towns and cities across the Commonwealth to create or join regional transportation authorities. He is continuously working to maintain equity in the MBTA assessments paid by our towns for the service they receive. Sen. Brown has also advocated for maintaining transportation lines (buses) that are needed by towns, as well as advocating against lines (trains) that are opposed by towns.
► Supporting Local Transportation Projects – Senator Brown has fought to include many local transportation infrastructure projects to the state’s list of construction projects. Such improvements include redesigning dangerous intersections, bridge renovations, and rails to trails projects.
► Making Public Transit Safer – Senator Brown has filed legislation that would direct the MBTA to install defibrillators on their commuter rail trains. The defibrillators would be used in a pilot project to see if they can be used effectively in the event of an emergency aboard a moving train.
► Commuter Rail Accountability – Senator Brown has been a vocal critic of the lack of efficiency of the Commuter Rail System. The “On-time” performance rate and virtually ignored schedule has been and in many cases, continues to be at an unacceptable level. Sen. Brown has joined with other regional legislators to demand in recent meeting that the MBTA and the rail provide efficiency and overall respect for commuters.
► 128 Add-a-Lane Project – Senator Brown has worked with the Mass Highway Department to see that his constituents are kept informed of the progress on this project, as well as abutters and neighborhood groups in an effort to make sure they have a say in how the project is conducted.