Green Line, Safety Hires Featured In MBTA Budget Plan wbur.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wbur.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Chris Lisinski, State House News Service
April 1, 2021
Chris Lisinski, State House News Service
After resisting calls to change course for months, the MBTA embarked on a mission Monday to reverse service cuts across all modes in the coming months by using hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency federal aid.
The T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board voted to restore subway and bus service to pre-pandemic levels, resume weekend commuter rail service on lines where it was suspended, and begin running ferries again, all with an unspecified but urgent timeline of “as soon as possible.”
MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said at the board’s meeting that the agency expects to receive at least $845 million from the American Rescue Plan – on top of the $1.1 billion the T received in prior federal stimulus packages – putting it in “a much different landscape” than when T officials planned and approved the unpopular service cuts.
MBTA scrambling to restore service wickedlocal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wickedlocal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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.
Federal relief funds are helping the MBTA But only for so long boston.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from boston.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.