Transportation agencies may share costs

 BOSTON. With the MBTA and Turnpike Authority both facing billions in debt, the state’s top transportation officials met yesterday to discuss ways to pool resources to share costs and services.

The meeting included Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen and the heads of the T, Turnpike, Massport and state’s highway department. Officials said the gathering was only preliminary and that no ideas have been finalized.

The agencies will research numerous options — none of which were detailed — before they meet again, likely in a week or two.

“We are wrestling with difficult financial issues particularly at MBTA and the Turnpike Authority but continue our efforts already underway for many months to pursue reform and find efficiencies and areas in which we can cooperate,” said Cohen, through a spokesman.

Last month, the Legislature passed a bill that would rescue the Turnpike Authority from some of its $2.4 billion shortfall by using the state’s better credit rating to restructure its debt. Cohen has said toll hikes for Pike drivers are a last resort to the agency’s financial crisis.

The T, meanwhile, is facing $8 billion of debt and recently used key reserve funds to balance its latest budget.

Rising costs, such as for fuel, are outpacing the revenue from growing ridership, and though fare hikes have been ruled out for 2009, officials for months have warned it will be difficult to solve the T’s structural deficit without additional revenue sources (including fare increases), debt relief or substantial service cuts.