Governor Patrick Signs Transportation Reform Bill

Governor Deval Patrick in Springfield today signed a landmark transportation reform bill to help secure the Commonwealth’s economic future by radically simplifying bureaucracy and delivering real cost savings by curbing out-of-scale health and pension benefits. 

“The meaningful, long-lasting reforms we will make to our state’s transportation system will rebuild public trust and put an end to the old ways of doing business,” said Governor Patrick. “Today, we are inaugurating a new era of streamlined and efficient delivery of transportation services to the residents of Massachusetts.”

The legislation creates a new Massachusetts Department of Transportation (Mass DOT) to oversee four divisions: Highway, Mass Transit, Aeronautics and RMV.  Mass DOT will be administered by a Secretary of Transportation, and overseen by a Board of Directors appointed by the Governor with expertise in transportation, finance and engineering. 

“I am excited by this opportunity to lead a revitalized and reorganized transportation organization,” said Transportation Secretary James Aloisi, Jr.  “We will fulfill the Governor’s strong mandate to simplify, reform and make more accountable our entire transportation system.”

Read the Governor's release.  Visit Governor Patrick's website on Mass.Gov here.

 

Comments

[Klark Jessen, Executive Office of Transportation]

Hillary:

Thank you for sharing your story. The transportation reform bill approved by the Governor will create a new Massachusetts Department of Transportation that includes the Tobin bridge and the Turnpike, along with MassHighway, the Registry of Motor Vehicles, the Executive Office of Transportation, and the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission. With the consolidation of the agencies, there will be one point of contact in the future to assist people with issues such as the one you raised. The Tobin Bridge and Masspike Toll Operations staff are already meeting weekly to make the transition as seamless as possible. MassDOT becomes effective November 1, with the Tobin Bridge included in MassDOT as of January 1, 2010.

[Hillary]

This is long overdue. Everything should be stream lined for efficiency. Recently my fastlane transponder broke. I went to the service station in East Boston at the tunnel. An older latino gentleman was there with his broken transponder and a ticket he had received at the Tobin bridge. The fast lane service center employee explained repeatedly in Spanish that while it was true the transponder was broken and he shouldn't have gotten the ticket, the gentleman had to go to a different agency to get the ticket resolved as the Tobin bridge was Massport and not the turnpike authority. I felt bad for the man who was older and not an English speaker that he now had to make a second trip, when really it should all be linked and there is no legitimate reason why it is not.

[s. bobo]

this the most outrageous act tword retired mbta workers. it is a scam to break the retirement reserve fund. this will not fix the debte incurred by years of greed, misuse, and stupidityby this state. shame over the big dig is just the last foolishness by the state government. leave our legally contracted retirement benefits alone. in 1972 the state stole the boston city retires pension reserve for nothing. I pray that you develop a consience for workers, but i doubt you know what that is. s.b.