As Mass. Looks To Solve Its Transportation Woes, MBTA Announces Weekend Closures

We start today where many of us start our weekdays: transportation, by road and train.

The MBTA has announced plans to shut down key sections of the Red and Orange lines as well as some parts of the Green Line during weekends in the fall.

MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak explained the idea to the Fiscal Management Control Board this afternoon. "We understand there's an inconvenience for our customers, but it's really going to allow us to get in and do the type of work that we need to do on the stations and the track that will improve the customer experience and improve reliability for our customers," he said.

That follows the bad news last week on road traffic. The Baker administration acknowledged that congestion had reached a "tipping point."

The governor is offering solutions, including building new toll lanes on state highways.

"Drivers have a choice to commute in a faster lane for a cost, drivers who remain in the untolled lane will also experience lighter volume from those who peel off for the faster lane," he said during last week's unveiling of the report.

Jim Aloisi, former transportation secretary, a member of the TransitMatters Board, and the principal of Trimount Consulting. He tweets @jimaloisi.

Steve Silveira, senior vice president of ML Strategies, a government relations consulting group. He served on the Governor's Commission on the Future of Transportation. ML Strategies tweets @MLStrategies.

Stacy Thompson, executive director of Livable Streets Alliance. The alliance tweets at @streetsboston.