TRANSPORTATION

Baker not bullish on North-South rail link

Governor Charlie Baker made clear Thursday that he isn’t a big fan of a proposed rail tunnel to connect North and South stations, saying he is focused on making existing MBTA lines more reliable. Baker told business leaders he would move ahead with a feasibility study for the North-South Rail Link. But he indicated he would prioritize state funds for fixing the subway and commuter train lines that are running today. A spokesman later emphasized that Baker is keeping an open mind. But his comments about the rail link followed more general comments about why riders need to see a properly functioning transit service first, before expansions. He criticized previous leaders’ “fascination with growth and expansion . . . to add a few thousand riders’’ while not updating basic signals and switches for decades. Baker said three-fourths of his administration’s five-year capital plan for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority — about $4.9 billion — is focused on modernizing existing infrastructure and improving reliability. Only about one-fourth of the plan is devoted to expansion, and much of that money would be swallowed up by the Green Line extension already underway from Cambridge to Medford. One main reason the Baker administration is moving ahead with the rail link study: the tag team of former governors Michael Dukakis and Bill Weld. They have been pushing the Baker administration to champion the once-discarded project. — JON CHESTO

PENSION

Baker administration looks for MBTA pension fund to join state fund

The Baker administration is exploring ways to press the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority pension fund to move some or all of its assets into the larger state pension fund, according to people briefed on the developments. The step is part of a push by administration and MBTA officials to improve investment performance and governance at the $1.5 billion retirement fund for transit workers. According to research released Thursday by the Pioneer Institute, the MBTA pension fund would have $260 million in additional assets if it had been invested with the Massachusetts state fund from 2005 through 2014, reflecting the state’s higher returns and lower expenses. On Monday, the fund’s executive director for the past decade, Michael Mulhern, told the T pension fund’s six-member board that he will resign in August. He said in a letter that he believed the time was right to move on, after overseeing an expanded annual report for 2014 and a consulting review that refuted criticism of the fund’s accounting methods and investment performance. — BETH HEALY

BIOTECHNOLOGY

Biogen’s MS drug fails to meet goal in clinical trial

Biogen Inc., the state’s biggest biotech company, said Tuesday that its first drug intended to repair nerve damage in multiple sclerosis patients failed to hit its primary goal in a mid-stage clinical trial, news that cut its market value by more than $7 billion. The test results were a blow to the Cambridge company, which had high hopes of moving its MS research and development into a new stage where it could begin to reverse the neurological disease rather than just slow its progression. Multiple sclerosis affects about 400,000 people in the United States and 2.5 million worldwide. The company said its experimental drug opicinumab, often called anti-LINGO, showed “evidence of a clinical effect’’ and was generally well tolerated by patients. But it failed to achieve the primary aim of improving physical and cognitive function and disability. — ROBERT WEISMAN

GROWTH

It’s going to get crowded around here

If you think getting in and around Boston is tough right now, just wait 15 years. On Tuesday, the business group A Better City released a report showing the increasing strain that a growing and moving population will place on the roads, rails, and other critical infrastructure in Greater Boston. An additional 80,000 cars and trucks will crowd the roads every work day by 2030, according to the group, a nearly 5 percent increase from 2010 levels. The already stressed MBTA subway system will have to accommodate 14,000 more commuters every day, while buses and trolleys will see a nearly 7 percent increase in ridership, Dimino’s organization predicts. And out at Logan Airport, which is already expanding to deal with a surge in passengers, traffic could increase 63 percent more within 15 years. The underlying catalyst is a sustained increase in the region’s population, particularly in neighborhoods in and around Boston, as more younger workers choose to live in urban settings. — JON CHESTO

ENTERTAINMENT

Fight over Redstone’s health moves to local courtroom

CANTON — In a nondescript suburban Massachusetts courtroom Tuesday, a phalanx of high-powered lawyers (left) clashed over whether a bedridden 93-year-old media mogul is mentally capable of deciding who should take charge of his $40 billion business empire. Decades after Sumner Redstone got his start running a chain of movie theaters with his father from Massachusetts, his children, grandchildren, and longtime business partners are squabbling over his holdings, which have grown to include controlling stakes in Viacom Inc., CBS Inc., and Paramount Pictures. Lawyers for two executives who were recently ousted from the trust that will eventually control Redstone’s companies want him to be examined by a doctor immediately and hope to take testimony from him before his health worsens. “This poor man is holding onto life by a thread,’’ said Leslie Fagen, an attorney for Philippe Dauman and George Abrams, who sued Redstone in Norfolk County Probate and Family Court to block their removal from his trust.Last month, Redstone replaced Dauman, Viacom Inc.’s chief executive, and Abrams, a longtime friend and lawyer, as trustees of National Amusements, a theater chain based in Massachusetts that controls 80 percent of the voting stock in Viacom and CBS Inc. Under an agreement established in 2002, seven trustees will take control of National Amusements’ assets upon Redstone’s death or incapacity. But Redstone’s lawyer said his health is not dire. “Physically, Mr. Redstone is doing better now than at any time in the recent past,’’ Robert Klieger, an attorney for Redstone, said. — DAN ADAMS

INSURANCE

Your phone will tell on you

Your mobile phone can reveal a lot about you, from what you buy to where you eat. Now insurance companies want to tap into your phone to track how well you drive. Do you have a lead foot or a long commute? Your mobile phone will tell. Are you in the habit of Snapchatting behind the wheel? It will know. Do you talk on the phone while changing lanes? It’ll be watching. Piggybacking on sensors already built into many new smartphones that measure acceleration, direction, sudden falls, and location, insurers in Massachusetts and across the country are introducing mobile phone applications that monitor driving habits. The technology will allow them to base car insurance premiums on how well you drive. Two companies recently asked the Massachusetts insurance regulator for approval to market the free apps to drivers in the state. But officials have many questions — including exactly how insurance companies will use the data they collect and who will have access to it. The apps, which have been approved in more than 30 states, including Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, are installed voluntarily by drivers. Insurance and technology companies say the apps are a tool to reward safe driving. At the same time, they also accumulate data on the dangers of distracted driving by tracking how often drivers text, call, or check social media behind the wheel. — DEIRDRE FERNANDES