It’s back to the drawing board for the MBTA as they look for the best way to alleviate problems caused by the cancellation of late night service last month.
The MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board tabled discussion on four plans T staff prepared to make it easier for low income and minority riders to get to early shifts. The four proposals would have added additional service to existing bus routes in lower-income neighborhoods for a cost of around $600,000.
The board moved to delay the vote so they could consider another idea that was floated on the website of the public policy magazine CommonWealth. Written by transportation planner Ari Ofsevit, transit activist Jeremy Mendelson and former MassDOT Secretary James Aloisi, the plan would also expand existing early-morning bus service to several key routes, but would also create “hub” locations where the routes meet. The hubs would “pulse” every hour or so when buses arrive and allow for a window where passengers could change buses.
Rafael Mares from the Conservation Law Foundation wanted the short-term mitigation to at least get a board vote so they could move forward with some solutions this summer. Since they tabled the discussion, the T may not be able to get any kind of mitigation arrangement in place until the fall.
“By tabling the discussion today, the actual effect is that they will not have any mitigation in place,” Mares said. “The earliest they could put any in place would be in October.”
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told WGBH News that the board could decide to alter the bus schedules at any point should it choose to. Bus scheduling is usually arranged in three-month chunks, with the next scheduled to go into effect June 25.
“They want staff to come back to analyze the other option which had been presented as possible additional bus routes and then compare the cost of that to the cost of the mitigations that were presented by staff today and try to come out with a decision as soon as they can,” John Englander, the MBTA’s general counsel, told reporters after the meeting.
Aloisi prefers his own proposal to serve the out-of-luck early morning riders, and as a former top transportation aide in the Patrick administration, he knows a thing or two about MBTA culture. Better a good plan down the road in the fall than a lesser plan now, according to Aloisi.
“Once a 'solution’ gets put into place it’s hard to get motivated to change it,” Aloisi told WGBH News after the board’s non-action. “Having nothing in short term keeps pressure on them to get it right.”
