DECEMBER 13, 2020
Throughout the fall, business, labor, transportation, and environmental justice organizations that make up the Transit is Essential Coalition have advocated for new investments in the MBTA both to support essential workers who rely on transit service and to bolster the Commonwealth’s long-term recovery. In this rapidly changing public-health and economic climate, the MBTA’s Fiscal & Management Control Board should not make any significant service decisions.
Deep service cuts were proposed by MBTA staff before news was made public about a successful coronavirus vaccine. Since that time, more and more evidence indicates that large and long-term transit service cuts are unpopular, unnecessary, and would be arriving just as we expect large numbers of riders will be returning to the T.
These cuts are unpopular:
A statewide poll by the MassINC Polling Group shows a strong majority of residents oppose the proposed cuts — even those who don’t regularly ride the system. Massachusetts residents understand that transit is essential, and that those who are using transit today are frontline workers who are working in health care, at grocery stores, and providing other essential services.
These cuts are unnecessary:
Two new reports from the MBTA Advisory Board and A Better City offer pathways to addressing the MBTA’s budget gap without cuts. Federal transit relief funding is becoming increasingly likely, and state legislative funding options remain on the table.
These cuts would arrive at just the wrong time:
Per the timeline laid out in the state’s vaccine distribution plan, a critical mass of residents could be vaccinated and looking to return to work, restaurants, sporting events, and cultural institutions just as these cuts would go into effect. Those riders who stopped commuting in March would find that the system on which they once relied is no longer there for them.
Transit is essential.
The MBTA has been an essential service through the pandemic, and it will be essential to the Commonwealth’s recovery. Now is not the time for deep cuts to service, and we urge the FMCB not to move forward with this vote.
For more information, visit: transitisessential.org
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