Baker administration transportation officials have stressed they are unlikely to reverse service cuts promptly even if the federal government makes another round of one-time emergency aid available, but the Massachusetts Senate has a different idea.
The Senate on Wednesday adopted an amendment to its fiscal 2021 budget (S 4) that requires the T, if federal funding arrives, to make “reasonable efforts” to restore any cut services or paused capital projects “that unduly impact ridership.”
That approach, should it be survive and be included in the final budget, could come into conflict with the strategy outlined by Department of Transportation and MBTA leaders.
“The question is, if you got the federal package this spring but were still seeing 25 or 30 percent of the pre-COVID ridership, whether it would make sense to immediately add service or whether it would make sense to hold onto those federal dollars until we need it for more ridership,” Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack s aid last week.
Ridership has cratered on the MBTA to roughly a quarter of pre-pandemic levels — taking fare revenue with it — but the agency is still running buses, trains and ferries at about the same level as before COVID.
In December, the agency’s board plans to vote on a package of service cuts that includes eliminating 25 bus routes and ferries, weekend commuter rail service, and about 20 percent of subway trip frequency.
The amendment the Senate adopted, filed by Winchester Democrat Sen. Jason Lewis, had originally called for directing another $308 million in funding to the MBTA. That additional funding got scrapped in a redrafted version of the proposal.
The redraft also requires the state to direct any increased revenue from a sales tax acceleration toward preventing transit cuts and requires the T to hold public hearings ahead of service eliminations, some of which are already underway.
The final version that passed also requires the state to direct any increased revenue from a sales tax acceleration toward preventing transit cuts and requires the T to hold public hearings ahead of service eliminations, some of which are already underway.
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