In a March 2021 report, the left-leaning Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center said transit advocates working with the Livable Streets Alliance concluded that eliminating fares on local buses would cost the MBTA $33.7 million in annual fare revenue. Another $6 million to $7 million would be lost if making buses free meant parallel-running paratransit had to be free, the report said.

“We need to fundamentally change the way the T procures services,” said Stacy Thompson, executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance. “We need competitive processes, and they need to be transparent.”

two members of that new T4MA leadership team, Stacy Thompson and Alexis Walls, also serve as volunteer members of the StreetsblogMASS board of directors

Stacy Thompson of LivableStreets, a transit advocacy group, and Frank Lowenstein of the conservation group Rare join Radio Boston to discuss.

Stacy Thompson, executive director of LiveableStreets Alliance, said the nonfunctional heat lamps make waiting for a bus less pleasant, but they are just one factor in an overall uncomfortable system, especially around Nubian Station.

“This is part of a larger and more complex problem about how to make places where people wait for transit more comfortable,” Thompson said. Heaters are an issue right now, but “within six months it might be that it’s too hot and sunny, and there’s no shade.”

“How do we fund and resource a 21st century transit system?” That’ll be the million (ahem, $24.5 billion) question in 2024, according to Stacy Thompson, the executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance.

Stacy Thompson is the executive director of LivableStreets Alliance, a metro Boston transportation advocacy organization to help riders move around the region. "This really kicks off the 2024 repair-the-slow-down blitz for the T. So this is the first of what will be many short shutdowns," Thompson said. She reminds commuters that this is not only the oldest part of the MBTA but also includes part of T that is the oldest subway system in the country.

"This section of the MBTA is what I like to say is the most congested. It's where all of the branches of the Green Line come together, and they are all using the same tracks," Thompson said. The upgrades provide some hope for commuters who look forward to get to work on time.