Attorney General Maura Healey made an indirect criticism of Gov. Charlie Baker’s approach to dealing with the transportation problems facing the state on Monday, calling the state’s transportation infrastructure "pathetic."
“The state of our transportation infrastructure is pathetic,” Healey said during an interview with Boston Public Radio. “It’s terrible. We’ve built up these massive areas in Kendall Square and the Seaport without any adequate planning with respect to transportation.”
Healey, who has described herself as having a good working relationship with the governor, said that “stuff is not happening” in response to a question by BPR host Jim Braude about whether she felt Baker had an appropriate sense of urgency in regard to the transportation crisis.
“Think about the lost GDP, think about people’s aggravation, think about what people are going through ... everybody is a victim of this,” Healey said. “We need to act with an urgency that we’ve never acted with before to fix this.”
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Speaking about the derailment of a car on the Red Line earlier in the month, Healey said that it was unacceptable and should have been cause for concern for everyone in the state.
“We are second in the country in derailments. We are now talking about public safety at its core. People getting injured. People could die,” Healey said. “This is a real serious situation, and what’s going on?”
Taking a position opposite of the governor, Healey said that she is in favor of increasing revenue to MBTA. She also said she is against the scheduled fare increase for the T and commuter rail system.
“Yeah, we need new revenue. I think it was wrong to raise fares,” Healey said. “I look at transportation like education. It is a public good. We all benefit as state from having better transportation [and] education systems.”
