Statehouse News Service via Worcester (MA) Business Journal, 4/11:
T considering ways to close $50M deficit
On the menu for MBTA officials seeking to further shrink the agency's roughly $50 million structural deficit are elimination of same-day booking for The Ride paratransit service, savings in commuter rail weekend service and the introduction of alcohol ads onto the system - a source of controversy in the past.
Michael Abramo, the MBTA's chief financial officer, said the ads would appear on digital billboards and only run at certain times of day to avoid beaming their pro-booze messages at children traveling to and from school. A presentation Abramo made to the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board on Monday reported that peer transit agencies - in Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and elsewhere - accept alcohol ads.
Continue here.