Advertisement
Boston's Morning Newsletter
Step inside one of the MBTA's future Green Line 'supercars' this week at City Hall
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
Get ready for a weather rollercoaster this week. But first, the news:
Sneak peek: Curious to know what the next generation of Green Line trolleys will look like? Now’s your chance to see them up close. The MBTA is putting one of its future Type 10 Green Line “supercars” outside Boston City Hall today and tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. WBUR’s Andrea Perdomo-Hernandez reports you’ll be able to go inside the sample trolley and tell MBTA staff what you think. “The feedback is going to be invaluable to make sure that these suit not only our operator needs, but the public needs,” MBTA General Manager Phil Eng said during a meeting last week.
- Zoom in: At 114-feet long, the so-called supercars are 40 feet longer than the T’s current Green Line trolleys. “As we rebuild our infrastructure, we want to also make sure that we can carry more and more people,” Eng said. They also feature wider doors, 100% low floors for accessible boarding, digital screens and a fresh paint design. (The car outside City Hall is technically only four-sevenths of a supercar, because the full-length Type 10s were logistically too difficult to transport to the plaza.)
- Zoom out: The MBTA has ordered over 100 Type 10 cars to fully replace the current hodgepodge of old and new trolleys. But it will be a bit of a wait. While the first test cars are set to arrive in 2026, Eng says they won’t start to be phased into service until spring 2027.
Where there’s smoke: There are at least 30 wildfires currently burning across Massachusetts, according to officials. Dave Celino, the state’s chief fire warden, told WBUR’s John Bender the majority are small, but a few fires have grown to significant sizes — such as a 135-acre fire in Salem and a 233-acre fire in Middleton. According to Celino, the priority now is containment. “We actually don’t want to draw resources to the interior part of these fires,” he said. “We want our resources focused on securing the perimeters.”
- Don’t expect the fires to be extinguished anytime soon. While some scattered showers are expected later this week, Celino says it will likely take several inches of rain over multiple days to put out the larger fires. “That will actually bring fire activity right to a screeching halt if we get that kind of event,” he said.
Closing time: Citizens Bank says it will close 15 of its branches — including four in Massachusetts. The Providence-based bank’s branches in Bellingham, Belmont, Burlington and Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood are set to shutter this January. The closures also include a branch in Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
- Why? The Boston Globe reports Citizens has been tweaking its branch strategy based on customer habits, as the company leans into digital banking and wealth management. (After the closures, Citizens will still have over 180 branches in Massachusetts — more than any other bank in the state.)
Hiring up: Two recently embattled Massachusetts state agencies have picked new leaders. The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority’s board voted yesterday to appoint Marcel Vernon Sr. — a local CFO who members described as a potential “agent of change” — as its next executive director. Meanwhile, the Cannabis Control Commission is working to lure a familiar face — David Lakeman — back from Illinois to be its new director.
T-minus one week: Today is the last day to apply to vote by mail in Massachusetts before Election Day next week. It’s also the unofficial deadline to mail back your ballot. If you’re still holding onto a mail-in ballot after today, Secretary of State Bill Galvin says you should probably drop your ballot off or go vote in person.
- Zoom in: More than 1 million Bay Staters have already voted in the 2024 election. Click here for the latest stats.
- Zoom out: The FBI and local police are investigating attempts to set ballots on fire in drop boxes and post office boxes across several states.
- Meanwhile: Vice President Kamala Harris is set to visit the site of Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 rally tonight to make a speech laying out her closing argument. NPR has more on what to expect here.
P.S.— Do you feel ready to vote? Take our election quiz on the rules around going to the polls and the ballot questions in Massachusetts.
