Word: transitional
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Most urban transit corporations, like the MTA and the New Haven Railroad, operate at huge losses and cannot afford the new facilities, the equipment and the more frequent schedules needed to attract more passengers. Consequently, revenue--and the level of equipment and service--continue to fall. The MTA carries far fewer people today than when it was formed in 1947, and it had a deficit last year of sixteen million dollars; the plight of the New Haven's commuter lines is well-known...
...Williams Bill would provide $750 million in loans and, where necessary, outright grants, for mass transit projects: to build new railroad and subway lines, to buy new buses and rolling stock, to build stations and parking lots and to improve existing facilities. Any viable system, public or private, might receive aid, although the government could not pay directly for more than two-thirds of all costs...
...Boston's transit systems, though already extensive, might still benefit from the Williams Bill. The MTA, currently operating with a heavy deficit, could quality for federal loans or grants to rebuild the Charlestown El and extend it to Medford and Malden. Builders of the proposed South Shore monorail might also borrow or be given federal money...
...problem in this area, however. It would expire in three years and could not directly meet the deficits that plague the MTA and the commuter lines. But it would provide capital to help get them running on a feasible financial basis. No one can force commuters to use mass transit facilities, but the results of the projects on the Boston area railroads indicate that more passengers will use mass transportation if it is made sufficiently convenient and attractive...
...bring more financial burdens on debt-ridden local governments. Congress has long since appropriated $41 billion for highways which have done little to help and in some cases have aggravated urban traffic problems. It would make little sense for the House to refuse three-quarter billion dollars for mass transit systems which will clear up city streets...