Press Release: 3/31/2025

Transportation Supports Economic Development, Opportunity

 

Posted on March 27, 2025

Frederick W. Clark, Jr., right, President of AIM member Bridgewater State University, celebrates the inaugural run of the South Coast Rail with BSU Student Trustee E. Rose and Student Government President Sophia Pinarreta.

By Brooke Thomson

President & CEO

The initiation of South Coast rail service last week highlighted the symbiotic relationship between transportation and economic development.

The new service will provide connections for people in Fall River and New Bedford who work in Boston; for people in Boston who take jobs on the South Shore; and for people in both locations who may find employment at companies in between. Not to mention new options for students at AIM member Bridgewater State College.

Transportation and housing in many ways frame the larger issue that Massachusetts employers face in attracting and retaining the qualified workers needed to make the economy grow. The commonwealth will succeed only if employees have affordable places to live and an efficient way to get to work and home again.

Transportation touches every corner of our lives. It determines the ability of our fellow citizens to share in the economic prosperity of the commonwealth. It affects housing patterns in a state where housing is in desperately short supply. And it provides the infrastructure for our personal lives, whether it’s visiting the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, catching a Symphony concert or getting to class first thing in the morning.

AIM and its 3,400 member companies care deeply about transportation in all its manifestations. We care about good roads to bring products into and out of manufacturing plants. We care about improving Boston’s dubious status as having the fourth longest traffic delays in the United States. We care about residents of rural areas who find themselves isolated from the economic life of the commonwealth.

That’s why AIM continues to be deeply involved in the effort to create the world-class transportation systems needed by growing Massachusetts employers.

I was privileged to serve last year on Governor Maura’s Healey’s Transportation Funding Task Force, which set the stage for the governor’s new plan to make investments in the state’s roads, bridges and regional transportation system and stabilize the finances of the MBTA. The $8 billion, 10-year initiative would be done without raising taxes and represents the largest state transportation investment in more than 20 years.

AIM is also a member of the Cape & Islands Bridges Coalition and recently hosted a meeting of that group at our offices in Boston. We belong to the group because the replacement of the aging Bourne and Sagamore Bridges represents a desperately needed infrastructure lifeline to an economy that generates $16.3 billion annually – including $1.4 billion from the dynamic tourism industry.

The MBTA remains a centerpiece of state transportation planning, responsible for carrying more than 800,000 riders every weekday on a complex network of subway, light rail, bus, commuter rail and ferry service. The T, which serves approximately 200 communities, is the fourth busiest rapid-transit system in the United States, the third-busiest light rail system.

General Manager Phillip Eng, who has made remarkable progress improving the safety, reliability and performance of the organization, told an AIM Commonwealth Conversation last week that the T is a catalyst for movement and development well beyond the Boston city limits. The agency, for example, is coordinating with Regional Transit Authorities in eastern Massachusetts to ensure end-to-end transportation options for the employees upon which businesses depend.

“We’re moving people and affecting people’s lives and doing it in a positive way,” said Eng, who added that the T has only “scratched the surface” of what is possible.

A final piece of the transportation puzzle is Massport, which manages airports, the seaport, and other infrastructure for international trade in Massachusetts. AIM will host a conversation with Massport CEO Rich Davey on April 8 to update employers on what is happening with the trade gateway to New England. We invite you to join us.

Transportation, like housing, is a sprawling issue with complex financial, governmental and social implications. We must, however, address these implications to prevent our economy from falling victim to its own success.