Media Statement: Summer '22 Service Cuts due to OCC Staffing Shortage

BOSTON, June 17, 2022 —  Today's announcement of service cuts for the Red, Orange, and Blue lines due to staffing shortages at the Operations Control Center is a painful example of how badly the MBTA has been failed by poor oversight and a lack of stable, dedicated funding. Contrary to the current narrative, the FTA’s directives are not about the age of the system. All of the identified issues are the result of a decades-long, bipartisan aversion to funding the T adequately. Billions of bond authorizations for capital projects have masked the need for more funding and stability for the T’s operating budget. The T has been in and out of a state of fiscal crisis for decades; this is not how one builds a reliable system free from safety concerns. 

For years the administration’s laudable focus on increasing capital spending has come at the expense of attention to day-to-day maintenance and safety needs. Earlier this year in a misguided decision, the T shifted hundreds of millions from the operating budget. The administration and legislature need to treat the employee shortage at the MBTA like an emergency, because it is one. We call on the T to promptly convene labor and workforce development partners, along with the FTA, to develop a comprehensive plan to staff up the MBTA. The administration and legislature should work with this team to provide them with the resources to give competitive salaries and streamline hiring.

This action would not pass an FTA equity analysis if it happened in a vacuum; this should be a wake-up call to a legislature that has made equity a priority. The burdens of this action will fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable people in our workforce, who cannot work remotely and depend on the T to get to work. This action also likely would not pass any environmental test, as it will very likely suppress ridership, increase VMT, emissions, and congestion. 

The irony of these cuts being announced as we await the joint House and Senate Climate bill should not be lost on anyone. The MBTA is one of the most important tools to help us reduce emissions from the transportation sector. The legislature must find a stable source of funding to address state of good repair and operating funding to ensure reliable, safe service. They should act decisively this year in the transportation bond bill and the budget.  

We await hearing the T’s plan to fast track new safety and operations hires and reverse these service cuts. We also await hearing the plans of legislative leaders to address the chronic funding shortfall issues, and set aside funding for the T to use as it responds to the FTA’s directives. We call on municipal, legislative, and business leaders to help the MBTA hire the staff it needs to run a modern, safe system that responds to our economic, environmental, and equity needs.  

For media inquiries, please e-mail media@transitmatters.org. 

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Media Statement: MBTA Bus Network Redesign

BOSTON, May 31, 2022 — On Monday, May 16th, 2022, the MBTA and the MassDOT Office of Transportation Planning launched their Bus Network Redesign proposal, kicking off a summer of engagement and feedback collection. This draft map presents a bold vision for the future of bus service in the MBTA region, motivated by a desire to reimagine the bus network to serve the trips of today rather than the trips of a century ago. TransitMatters sincerely congratulates the staff of the MBTA and the MassDOT Office of Transportation Planning on reaching this milestone - and we also commit to staying engaged on this project all the way through implementation.

However, a bus network is more than lines on a map; a bus network is service, operations, and schedules. A bus network is experiences, bus stops, transfers, and service spans. A bus network is vehicles, operators, and bus officials. The MBTA needs to ensure that its operational infrastructure, policies, and staff are sufficient to deliver this new service and to deliver on its promises of frequency and reliability. There are several key issues that need to be addressed by the MBTA for this program of improvements to fully deliver on its potential; first among them are operations, transfers, and operators.

The MBTA needs to develop policies and programs that support operations on the bus network - two of these, headway maintenance for frequent services, and timed transfers for infrequent ones, are crucial steps to delivering reliable service and overcoming skepticism from the public about the MBTA’s ability to deliver on its bold vision for a much larger frequent bus network. Currently, bunches of buses on frequent and infrequent routes are a common and almost daily occurrence, strangling service frequency, hampering public perception, and reducing reliability. Headway maintenance - the active monitoring and control of the time between buses along a route - can address this problem, and requires both technology, to enable the communication required to implement it, as well as policy, to set standards and empower operators and officials to implement them.

Timed connections on infrequent routes are another key step to enabling regional mobility and maximizing the utility of infrequent services. By having key nodes in the bus network serve as timed transfer points for buses arriving every 30 minutes or more, transfers are made easier and more comfortable for riders. This is just one way in which infrequent services can provide useful transit connectivity - if the MBTA is willing to plan, promise, and deliver useful connections and guaranteed transfers.

The bus network also needs to drive infrastructure decisions, both for passenger facilities and transit priority. Bus stops and key transfer points should be safe, comfortable and legible, and connections should be clearly marked and provided with wayfinding signage, seating, and shelter. The MBTA should work with municipalities and other roadway owners to ensure that transit priority, both on the street and in signalboxes, is provided where necessary.

Finally, the MBTA needs to address the shortage of operators needed to deliver this service. The Authority should improve the attractiveness of the career and the pay on offer, and if this requires more resources, the Authority should work with the administration and the legislature to secure recurring and predictable revenue to support this service expansion. The MBTA should also work with unions to negotiate improved compensation for new workers without it coming at the expense of existing operators.

This plan has the potential to truly transform the way Greater Boston uses the bus - but the MBTA needs to work with municipalities, RTAs, and TMAs to ensure that the network is coordinated with all of the other services that operate in the region to ensure maximum benefits. By improving operations, managing headways, coordinating transfers, providing comfortable facilities, and addressing funding shortfalls, operator shortages, and transit priority, the MBTA can turn this plan for improved bus service into a reality.

For media inquiries, please e-mail media@transitmatters.org. 

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Media Statement: FTA Letter re: Safety Management Inspection

BOSTON, May 11, 2022 —  TransitMatters believes that safety is a top priority for any public transportation system. We have confidence that overall, the MBTA is safe. We also believe that safety is always a priority for every MBTA employee. While we acknowledge the importance of an FTA safety review, we note that the situation locally requires funding, transparency, and leadership.

MBTA safety begins with ensuring that the agency has the resources, both financial and personnel, it needs to do the job. We need the Massachusetts Legislature to step up and provide sustainable funding that responds to the needs of the system and the values of the times. The T cannot continue to be an agency without new, dedicated sources of both capital and operating funding. Operating deficits are often resolved at the last minute, despite volumes of reports illustrating the structural inadequacies of the current approach to funding. We will not accept either service cuts or fare hikes as the answer to operating deficits going forward.

The MBTA has acknowledged that it faces an Operating Budget deficit next year in excess of $200 million. The legislature and governor should act now, through the Transportation Bond bill or Budget, to ensure that the budget deficit is closed, and to provide additional funding targeted toward key safety and service related initiatives. 

MBTA stakeholders need transparency about the agency’s progress on the recommendations from the 2019 Safety Panel. Top line numbers and percentages will not suffice. We need to know which recommendations have yet to be started, which ones require more resources, and what obstacles stand in the way of 100% compliance. 

Toward this end, we need an MBTA board that provides full transparency and actual accountability. It is incredibly disturbing that the existence of this letter was revealed by The Boston Globe and not at the April 28th board meeting. Advocates have expressed frustration at the lax oversight and refusal of the current Board to engage with the work of the FMCB. The FTA letter validates those concerns. 

The stakes are high. A full FTA takeover could result in forced fare hikes and service cuts, and put the federal government in charge of setting priorities. This is unacceptable and would be a significant setback for priorities like Bus Network Redesign, low-income fares, and more. We need new resources and strong leadership because climate change, as well as racial, socioeconomic, and regional equity demand that the T be able to focus on both safety and expanding service and access. 

We call on the governor and legislature to step up and act in the short term. No FTA review will succeed in the absence of a state commitment to reversing funding inequities and providing the funding to erase structural deficits. We need action now. 

The first step must be eliminating the projected Operating Budget deficit by taking decisive legislative action now. The second step is to have the legislature step up and provide the accountability and transparency the MBTA Board has failed to provide. This means holding hearings and demanding follow-up on FMCB efforts. Lastly, the Legislature should commit to having a sustainable revenue source for both the capital and operating budget by the start of the next fiscal year. These decisive actions will show that the Commonwealth is committed to funding and maintaining the fourth busiest public transit system in the country, fully and appropriately, free of federal control.

For media inquiries, please e-mail media@transitmatters.org. 

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