State officials sound confident they’ll secure federal funding for the new Green Line extension through Somerville, opening up five new stations by 2014.
Considering the overly long time it seems to take to finish any state project, it doesn’t take a cynic to wonder if the T’s timetable is a bit rosy. But cynicism aside, [...]

From this week’s Boston Courant, by Galen Moore:
The MBTA plans to adorn large outdoor structures like brick ventilation towers at Back Bay and Hynes Convention Center with banner ads …
… The new banner ads range in size from 20 by 22 feet on the ventilation building across from the Hynes Convention Center to 180 by [...]

The mess at NorthPoint continues.
From today’s Globe:

State transportation leaders, frustrated by delays in the massive NorthPoint development, are taking over the building of a new MBTA station on the Cambridge property – a move necessary to ensure an on-time start to the $550 million extension of the Green Line.
The NorthPoint development team had agreed to [...]

Article in the Times talks about a bunch of US cities that are building new streetcar networks.
“Streetcars” are apparently different from “light-rail” although I think you could use them interchangeably. The Green Line, for example, would be a streetcar system. Sort of.
The idea is an awesome one, but the idea has its flaws:
Critics, [...]

Proposal for a new MBTA Red Line extension to run down Massachusetts Avenue from Central Square in Cambridge through Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, through the Fenway and South End neighborhoods, and on to Dorchester … and beyond.

A transit agency in New England has filed a federal lawsuit to stop three Massachusetts Institute of Technology undergraduates from publicly presenting research at Defcon demonstrating gaping security holes in two of the agency’s electronic payment systems.
The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) also named MIT in the 17-page complaint …
… The three speakers are [...]

Lovely.
From today’s Globe:
Yesterday’s three-hour breakdown on the MBTA’s Red Line, stretching into morning rush hour, was only the latest inconvenience for riders in what is becoming a maddening summer on the T’s second-busiest subway line.
For more than two weeks, Red Line trains have been forced to slow to 10 miles per hour atop the Longfellow [...]

So, they want to extend the MBTA Green Line into Somerville and Medford. (Can we just finish Kenmore Square, first, for pete’s sake?)
I love the idea, as I am a fan of public transportation in general.
Many others love the idea, as well (including a couple of real estate agents I know, who are already [...]

Apparently, the MBTA is still considering extending the Silver Line along Charles Street South, or somewhere near there.
The idea is (in case you haven’t been paying attention over the past nineteen years), the Silver Line bus line that goes down Washington Street in the South End will travel by tunnel between some point on Tremont [...]

Not much to add to this, but in case you missed the news:
It’s big. It’s bold-looking. And its budget keeps ballooning.
It’s Kenmore Square Station. And its renovation is nearly two years behind schedule and more than $16 million over budget.
The MBTA board of directors recently approved spending an additional $420,140 on design and engineering work, [...]