December 14, 2020 Update from Veena Dharmaraj, Massachusetts Sierra Club Director of Transportation:
The Board voted 3-2 to approve the modified version of the service cuts. Some of the service cuts proposed in November were scaled back but overall the impact on service levels is still significant. The changes will come into effect between January and March after the T gets environmental and social equity approval as required by law. The Board also approved an amendment that will not allow the T to increase bus and subway fares till service levels are restored to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. However, there are still a lot of unknowns. The Board will be discussing the service cuts in March and service levels may be modified (increased or decreased) again. By that time more information on federal funding, roll out of vaccines, and ridership numbers will be available to hopefully have a better outcome. We will be continuing our advocacy in partnership with allies.
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by John Kyper and Clint Richmond, Co-Chairs, Massachusetts Sierra Club Transportation Committee
Background:
The MBTA faces significant service cuts in 2021 unless lawmakers act to fill a budget shortfall. Without additional funding, the MBTA service cuts will cause damage to our region's environment and economy, prevent people from getting where they need to go, and make our state less equitable. Please join us in asking the legislature to provide more funding to the MBTA so critical service can continue to run and support our region. You can read more on transitisessential.org.
The Massachusetts Chapter submitted the following comments to Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack and the MBTA Fiscal Management Control Board on December 4, 2020.
The Massachusetts Sierra Club is strongly opposed to the MBTA’s massive service cuts as currently proposed. We feel that they are far too broad and belie the Transit Authority’s professions that they are but a temporary expedient, for the duration of the COVID pandemic. Instead, we fear that the broad pruning of service being proposed here will result in the permanent diminishment of its coverage. Such a move would aggravate Boston’s epic traffic congestion to a condition possibly worse than it was before March, fouling the air with increased pollution and endangering our carbon reduction goals.
Despite its stated intention to tailor the cuts to have less impact on low income residents and people of color, many of the T’s proposals would have just the opposite effect on its most transit dependent riders:
Ending bus and subway service at midnight would unduly burden many essential workers who staff our hospitals, nursing homes and emergency facilities, by shutting down before they can get home after work. Similarly, canceling commuter rail service after 9 p.m. and on weekends will likely place a disproportionate burden upon people in our “Gateway Cities,” who must commute to Boston and other communities for their employment or educational opportunities.
One of the most egregious of these proposals is the plan to truncate the E-Heath branch of the Green Line at Brigham Circle, one mile short of its current terminus. Such a cutback would affect not only the many workers, outpatients and visitors at the VA Medical Center—but also the residents of the Back of the Hill complex, as well as those living in the high-rise towers that have gone up along South Huntington Avenue in recent years due to the accessibility of the very transit service that is now on the chopping block. Given that MBTA personnel will now have to be stationed at Brigham Circle to switch back the trains, this cutback is a classic example of fool’s economy!
Unfortunately, many of the widespread cuts under consideration will not reap all of the benefits that the Authority’s financial planners envision; moreover, they carry the risk of permanently depressing the demand for transit so that it might never recover once COVID is over and our economy begins to expand again. While these cuts have been touted as “temporary,” experience has shown that many of them could easily become permanent—to our detriment.
Instead of taking a meat cleaver to the MBTA’s service, the agency is hobbled and needs help. One fifth of its annual budget goes to pay debt service that helped to fund many vital improvements to the system. We strongly urge MassDOT and the T to work with the legislature to advance a revenue package and seek federal recovery funding that will sustainably fund transit in the short and long-term, help create jobs, get us closer to our climate goals, and get our economy back on track.
In evaluating any cutbacks, the agency must carefully weigh its likely effects on the populations currently being served, including those residing in transit oriented developments now completed or under construction, which were built due to services that may now be taken away. Authorities evaluating any line considered for discontinuance must provide criteria for determining when and under what conditions the service would be reinstated.
Service cuts will limit economic opportunity for many, especially those who rely on transit. It will force many others to drive, increasing congestion and pollution levels further worsening existing public health and transportation inequities. Instead of raising fares, the T must prioritize implementing a means-tested fare program to make transit affordable for those who need it the most.
Investing in strengthening our public transit infrastructure, and improving the reliability and quality of service, will revive rider confidence and ensure that the T is ready and effective once full demand returns.
Transit is an essential service, more so now during the pandemic, and will be critical to our economic recovery. It is important that all residents have access to clean, affordable, and reliable transit.