- Eliminate Green Line stops at Boston University, St. Paul Street, and everything on the E line beyond Brigham Circle.
- Cut the private carrier bus program used by more than 600,000 annual riders in Hull, Canton, Medford, and Winthrop.
- End weekday commuter rail service after 7 p.m.
These are the proposed cuts for the commuter rail:
- Eliminate weekday commuter rail service after 7 p.m.
- Eliminate all Saturday and Sunday commuter rail service
- Eliminate 16 commuter rail stations due to low usage or network redundancy
I often work late and take either the 7:15 or 8:20 trains from South Station to Grafton ... so, now I won't have those options at all, which means I will likely have to drive.
Eliminating a stop at BU? What about all of the students? Is the T trying to drive themselves further into the ground? Do they think that riders are going to stand for this or continue to take service that has been slashed?
I'm just at a loss.
7 comments:
From what I heard, they're cutting BU West and BU East. BU Central will remain open. I think this is a GoodThing(tm) as the B line stops every 5 feet at BU.
But cutting Commuter Rail after 7PM? Looks like I'll be driving into work more.
I agree, that definitely was a disturbing article. Hopefully it is enough to push for some new revenue from the Legislator to pay off T debt and secure their operations need of $165 million.
That article also talked about eliminating some T service after 8 on the regular subway lines. All of this, on top of fare hikes as well.
Well, it shows where the state government priorities are...drive, drive, drive.
The irate comments on boston.com and possibly in the queue here are examples of exactly what the MBTA wants. They want the people to frantically wave arms and scream "Save the MBTA" to the state house. I'm am certain they sat around and figured out which cuts to announce to make everyone the most annoyed without being so obvious that their bluffing as saying "close South Station". Personally, people should be more calm and call the MBTA's bluff: "If you'd like to go out of business entirely, you just go ahead and make those cuts. We'll see you on the unemployment line, Mr Grabauskas."
As a recent BU grad (Go BU Hockey!) I'll say that cutting out BU East and West are pretty good calls. So there will be one right at Blandford Street as you emerge from Kenmore, one outside the Student Union and one over the Pike in West Campus across from Agganis Arena.
Seems fine to me and many students would welcome the change, but it will make boarding take longer with fewer stops. Many students live in Allston and take the T at night to avoid the 15-20 minute walk, so demand probably won't go down, but supply will.
And the no Commuter Rail after 7pm is horrifying, I take the 10:20pm crawling train to Westboro twice a week after late class, after a full day of work.
Hopefully the Legislature will calm this game of political chicken and just pass the 19 cent gas tax.
I kind of feel like this is a game of chicken between the MBTA and State Legislature ... who is going to blink first?
Both Commute-a-holic and I got our master's degrees from BU ... Go Terriers!!!
Did you read the Globe follow-up article, some of the quotes in there were just as dismaying. One Methuen Dem basically said, sometimes you have to sacrifice and cut service. Without offering an alternative. This 9 cent tax will not cut it, it will not cover MBTA or other statewide transport needs. While I realize not everyone in MA uses the MBTA, there are many people who rely on it either out of necessity or convenience.
Glad to see some fellow alums running a very useful website. You guys seem to catch a lot of articles and hearings, etc. that most of us probably miss.
Here's to hoping the MBTA does not turn into a second-class 6AM-7PM operation. NYC and DC already laugh that we don't go 24/7....
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