The MBTA will restore service on several closed bus routes, add frequency on the highest-ridership bus lines and boost trips on the core subway system by late June, early steps in the agency s effort to walk back unpopular COVID-era cuts.
Two weeks after the T s board voted to resume pre-pandemic levels of service on most of the system as soon as possible, officials outlined the first major batch of changes coming to the bus network starting June 20.
MBTA Deputy General Manager Jeff Gonneville told the board on Monday that the T will resume running buses on Routes 18 in Dorchester, 52 from Dedham to Watertown, 55 in Boston to Copley Square, 68 in Cambridge and parts of the 465 that runs from Danvers Square to Salem Depot all of which were partially or fully suspended on March 14 in a package of service cuts in a summer schedule that takes effect June 20.
MBTA Green Line train at Boylston Station. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
MBTA staff are developing a plan to restore a small amount of bus and train service in the summer and fall, laying groundwork to start unwinding COVID-era cuts that in some cases have yet to take effect.
Officials at the transit agency on Monday said they would recommend increasing the frequency of trips on buses and rapid transit in the summer based on crowding observed this spring. For the fall, they suggested additional restorations on the bus network and an assess-and-adjust process for subways and trolleys.
MBTA staff who outlined the planning at a Monday board meeting said they will target an increase in bus service hours from 88% of pre-COVID levels in the spring to 90% in the summer and then as high as 93% in the fall.
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The controversial transit service cuts that will take effect next week will eliminate about 14 percent of the MBTA’s service in order to trim just one percent from the T’s $2.3 billion annual operating budget, according to MBTA officials.
On March 14, the T will reduce the number of daily train trips on the Red, Orange, and Green lines by up to 20 percent, and run 5 percent fewer trains on the Blue Line (where ridership has been higher during the pandemic).
On the bus system, riders of 22 bus routes will face longer waits between bus trips, and nine bus routes – including the 55 in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood, the 212 in Quincy, and the 79 through Arlington, will no longer run at all.
Chris Lisinski
State House News Service
The MBTA will reshape its commuter rail schedule this spring, trimming the morning and evening peaks and reallocating trains to run on more even intervals during the day, officials said Monday.
They unveiled plans to smooth out service on the 12 commuter rail lines in an attempt to support new travel patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Currently, the earliest train leave from Westborough station at 7:17 a.m.,and from Southborough at 7:25 a.m., headed toward South Station in Boston. Commuters can get back from Boston to Southborough as late as 11:41 p.m. and Westborough at 1:49 p.m. on weekdays. And, of course, the two stations are only stop (Grafton) from Worcester heading west. (For a complete schedule, see https://tinyurl.com/yr7hdxbee.)