Crowd Sounds Off Against Proposed MBTA Service Cuts

The blind, the wheelchair-bound, students, the elderly, business owners, city and state officials and other concerned area citizens overflowed two public meeting rooms at the Wednesday night to protest recent proposals by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority to cut service and raise fares.

More than 125 people turned out to the highly-publicized hearing to pummel  officials, who were forced to use two rooms to accommodate the crowd.

Among them was Marblehead Selectman Judith Jacobi, who testified that the board had to prevent the service cuts and said she worried about the impact they would have on the elderly and school children.

Also on hand was the owner of on State Street, who said she depends on workers who use the bus to commute from east Boston to work.

Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll called it “a double-whammy,” paying more for less service. “It is like you are cutting off our left arm and our right arm,” she said.

She praised acting MBTA General Manager John Davis for being creative in working on the deficit problem. But she said, “What we have before us is not the place to start.”

The mayor, joined by several state legislators, pledged to work with MBTA to come up with a different proposal to help the transit agency solve its estimated $163 million deficit.

The MBTA deficit is caused by interest and principal payments on $5.2 billion in debt, higher operating costs for the Ride and lower sales tax revenues, the agency said.

Of its $5.2 billion in debt, which accounts for 30 percent of the agency's budget, $3.6 billion was transferred to it from the state to cover the costs of constructing the Big Dig road system in Boston. The statewide sales tax, which allocates 20 percent to the MBTA, has not produced the expected revenues. And operating the Ride for special needs passengers has increased by 400 percent over the last 10 years.

Driscoll said Salem's MBTA station is one of the busiest in the state, often topping the list, because it has a large commuter population and a huge number of tourists who use the trains and buses to visit Salem.

“One of the keys to revitalizing gateway cities like Salem is transportation,” she said.

The public hearing in Salem was one of up to 30 scheduled in Boston and surrounding East Massachusetts cities.

Raise Fares Either 43 or 35 Percent

MBTA officials presented two options — one that would impose next July an overall fare increase of about 43 percent or a second proposal that would increase fares by about 34 percent. The higher fare hike would require a smaller reduction in services. The lower fare hike would require more service cuts.

There were gasps in the crowd when an MBTA official said a monthly pass on the commuter rail zone 3, which is Salem, would rise from $163 to $234 under option 1. Under the lower rate hike of option 2, the monthly pass would rise from $163 to $219.

The daily fare, now $5.25, would rise to either $7.50 or to $7.

Service cuts would end all commuter rail service after 10 p.m. and on weekends.

The higher-fare scenario would keep most bus service on the North Shore, eliminating only routes with lower ridership. The lower-fare plan would eliminate most MBTA bus service on the North Shore.

The Ride service would also be reduced.

The elimination of weekend service brought a strong outcry from members of the audience, who complained that it would hurt those people who work on weekends and those who use the MBTA for recreation, shopping and fun.

State Rep. Brad Hill, R-Ipswich, called the proposed elimination of weekend service “a disaster for Salem.” He said, “This proposal would kill tourism throughout the region.”

Others said the cuts would hurt their lifestyle, preventing them from going into Boston to the museums or to dinner or to professional sporting events.

"A Death Sentence"

Still others pleaded with the MBTA officials to keep the service because they use it to visit doctors and other medical care professionals.

“The Ride is the difference between life and death. It (the proposed cuts) is a death sentence,” said Nancy Houghton of Beverly. Confined to a wheelchair, she said her Boston doctors have kept her alive longer than they originally predicted.

Many speakers said the proposed cuts and fare hikes would deeply impact the elderly, people with special needs and children who take the buses to school.

Business owners, particularly restaurateurs, said they would not be able to staff their operations if service was eliminated after 10 p.m. and on weekends. The owner of a Marblehead restaurant said all of her cooks commute by bus from east Boston every day.

Several speakers proposed that the state legislature impose a nickel a gallon gas tax to help retire the MBTA debt, arguing that the costs of building the Big Dig should be paid by car commuters.

Several speakers also complained that the MBTA does not collect fares from many of its passengers, costing the agency millions of dollars.

Rep. Hill cited one woman who stopped buying a monthly pass, opting to carry a 12-ride pass that she said has been punched 25 times.

Dr. Janet Crane, a Salem School Committee member, noted that Massachusetts had the oldest public transit system in the country.

She said, “We should be leading the nation in public transit systems. Not doing this.”