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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A Muddled Call to Arms by the MBTA Rider Oversight Committee as MBTA is Forced to Consider Fare Increases

As the looming fare increase and service cut proposals gain more public awareness in the wake of yesterday's MBTA board meeting, Boston residents, and perhaps the Commonwealth itself, are forced to mull over what options are on the table to deal with the growing gap in the MBTA's operating budget.

Eric Moskowitz from the Globe lays out the situation accurately and succinctly:

If the T does nothing, it faces a projected $161 million deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1, as costs such as utilities, health insurance, and federally mandated paratransit service rise faster than MBTA revenue, the chief sources of which are fares (about $450 million a year) and a percentage of the state sales tax (worth nearly $800 million).

The T faced a similar situation last year but avoided a fare increase by implementing one-time measures such as selling future parking revenue to investors for a lump sum. The T has also tightened pension eligibility, streamlined labor costs (including switching from two operators to one operator on multiple subway lines), auctioned surplus property, and sold ads on everything from station walls to its website.

The T last raised fares Jan. 1, 2007.

Just in time to be a part of this discussion, the MBTA Rider Oversight Committe has released a plea to riders to speak to their representatives and advocate for better MBTA funding, which will hopefully run in tomorrow's Metro:

Riders, now is the time for us to stand up and speak out. The T’s red ink is much worse than you think. Next year, without increased funding, your bus or train could be the one that stops coming. Do we want the transit system we can afford or the transit system that we need? Rally round, and get engaged! Come join us at the public meetings and support the MBTA. Help us by calling your local and state representatives to insist they finally address the T’s funding gap. Fellow riders, it’s our T. It’s time for us to defend it.

In their letter, they speak to the better senses of the public, as does much of the press, trying to inform and arm the public with information to help advocate for a better solution, but many of the more radical options have been left out of the conversation, at least outside of twitter.

The last time New York City had to face these issues a few years ago, local politics included more vocal pushes for alternative funding vehicles to prevent a massive fare increase and service cuts. (They happened anyway because New York politics is a mess and has been one for a while.) Beyond typical ignorant ranting of government largess and inefficiencies, there were calls to start congestion pricing, tolling East River crossings, and even tax local businesses' payrolls (which has not gone over well).

Suffice it to say, all of these seem to be third rail topics that neither the press nor local advocates are willing to propose. While the ROC and others, including Secretary Davey himself, are pointing at the Commonwealth's legislature for relief, the fact remains that none of them are standing behind a unified message of what to ask for from the legislature in terms of bridging the funding gap, especially considering the Commonwealth is already trying to deal with a tight budget for every other state agency.

From my experience on twitter lately, it seems riders are more concerned with the platform experience more than the funding mechanisms behind the MBTA, more quick to bash it for inefficiency and waste than grant the agency a shadow of a doubt and look into reports about the funding situation. Advocates and members of the public in the know need to step up, do a better job to make the facts and options more accessible to riders, and stand behind a more cohesive message.

All I'm seeing is repeated messages of what we don't want and what we don't feel comfortable bringing up. I'll start by throwing my weight behind moderate fare increases, congestion pricing, parking reform (market pricing), and better long-term real estate deals on MBTA/state owned property. Perhaps we could get started on making public-private partnerships to assure funding, quality construction, and well-capitalised reconstruction of ageing stations and the Green Line extension, because simply selling naming rights of stations to corporations is really selling out the system.