News of successful COVID-19 vaccines created a “light at the end of the tunnel” of pain the MBTA’s finances are currently in. But instead of helping us get there, Gov. Charlie Baker and MassDOT Secretary Stephanie Pollack are packing dynamite around the tunnel walls.
To save $128 million out of a $579 million budget shortfall, MBTA officials propose to dramatically cut back on service across its network, including reducing the frequency of buses and trains, plus eliminating ferries, some bus routes and part of the Green Line’s E branch. The T’s board votes on the changes Dec. 14.
Pollack and T leaders promise service will be restored as ridership increases next year, but they forget that without transit service they can rely on, riders will opt to get in their cars or, worse still, buy cars after these cuts leave them without a choice. In other words, the T’s metric will lead to a steady erosion of service and ridership instead of meeting Greater Boston’s very real needs for car-free mobility now and in the future.
Real estate players and bankers know a thing or two about long-term planning and the need for reliable, long-term bets. Indeed, many have made exactly those bets building transit-oriented multifamily projects as far afield as Reading and Plymouth. By refusing to find money to prevent service cuts, the governor and the secretary are also pulling the rug out from under these projects and throwing many more sound plans into doubt based on flimsy pretenses.
A new MassINC poll finds that while a majority of workers would prefer to work from home part–time once the pandemic has passed, only one-third would prefer to do so full-time. It’s also clear is that managers will want to preserve seat-time in workplaces to foster connections between team members. In short, large-scale commuting will continue to be with us post-COVID, yet Baker and Pollack appear to be acting as though current travel patterns will continue once the virus is beaten.
To prevent catastrophic climate change, we must leave carbon-spewing cars behind. And no matter how green drivers paint their Teslas, the space they take up on the road compared to a bus or train will not change. A reliable, frequent and expanded MBTA is critical to addressing both issues but it needs adequate funding to do so.
The most absurd part of this disgraceful plan is the relative pittance these draconian cuts would save. It’s less than the change legislators could find among the couch cushions on Beacon Hill and a fraction of what’s likely to come the MBTA’s way via an in-progress federal stimulus bill, and yet the governor and the secretary would rather gut the T and set back efforts to solve our twin congestion and pollution problems by years.
When asked about the cuts by MassINC, voters showed they know the score: two-thirds opposed the cuts, and 54 percent doubt the T will restore service once cuts are made.
If Baker, Pollack and the legislature won’t step up with money, it’s time for the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board to stand up to them and stop these cuts in their tracks until federal aid arrives.
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