Letter: Resident takes issue with use of buses on Eliot Street

the following was submitted by Bob Fawls

Dear Neighbors,

Many people asked what was going on this past weekend with the 21 hour a day, 200+ buses on Eliot Street. I had really hoped that we had put this issue well behind us with the replacement van service the MBTA has provided for the past four years, when the trolley has scheduled outages.

I spent a number of hours on the phone Saturday, Sunday and today with MBTA Customer Service and managers as well as local and state officials. Based on discussions these are the facts as I understand them:

  • Last week neighbors on Capen and Maple, dissatisfied with the personalized van service the T provides to Valley Road and Capen Street station users, approached Senator Brian Joyce’s office in an effort to have the MBTA replace the vans with a full schedule of full size bus service for the weekend.
  • As evidenced by the 400+ trips on Saturday and Sunday, the Senator’s office was successful in getting the MBTA to convene a senior management meeting that overrode the previously scheduled and publicly announced van service and diverted every shuttle replacement bus down Eliot Street. As a testament to the MBTA’s commitment to service, buses ran approximately every five minutes for most of Saturday; much more frequently than the normal 15 to 20 minute schedule the trolley runs on weekends.

It is unclear whether the neighbors who advocated for the change actually used the service this weekend.why they are unable to survive a weekend with only the personalized van service.or why they are unable to walk less than two tenths of a mile to alternative stops on Brook or Central. To put the situation in perspective, the MBTA’s own passenger numbers show that the Trolley serves about 20 people on Saturdays and Sundays between the two stations.

Molly Boehmke, the Communications Director in Senator Joyce’s office said that the Senator and the MBTA were very interested in all feedback on the impact of the past weekend’s change in service. Please drop Molly an email and let her know how enjoyable it was for you. Molly can be contacted at <mailto:molly.boehmke@masenate.gov> molly.boehmke@masenate.gov.

Others you might consider contacting or including on any emails are:

I would be happy to answer question that I can if you want to drop me a note
or give me a call.

Bob Fawls

617.698.2309

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