Transit & Transportation
"Waiting for the #55" Protest & Stand-Out
We got our bus back! We stood out & protested every Sunday at 5:30, to "wait for the #55" bus at the corner of Jersey Street and Queensberry Street, joined by Fenway neighbors and other elected officials, until the MBTA announced the #55 would be on the summer schedule. When we fight, we win. I am so thankful to Fenway CDC, Fenway Civic Association, Fenway Community Center, and all of the residents who joined us.
This decision by the Governor and the MBTA to suspend the #55 was harmful to local residents, especially seniors, those with mobility challenges, and those without access to a car, who rely on the #55 bus to get to important resources within and outside of their neighborhood. Treating public transit as a business, rather than a public good, is short-sighted and will have harmful implications on our neighbors, our City, and our planet.
We continue to fight to return the #55 to a full schedule.
.png)
"Save Our Trolley!" Rally
Our Save Our Trolley! Rally was a protest of proposed service cuts that would have closed the last five stops of the E line in Mission Hill. We successfully prevented this cut! We gathered on Veterans Day at Heath Street Station in the shadow of Boston’s VA hospital, whose leadership also sent a strong letter of support; the veterans they care for and their essential workers rely on connecting to this line from all over the regional transit system.
Thank you to everyone who joined; we were lucky to have Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, a spokesperson for Representative Nika Elugardo, Councilor Matt O’Malley, Chief of Streets Chris Osgood, Patrick Stapleton from Sherrill House, Jean-Luc Pierite from the North American Indian Center of Boston, Jim Evers from the Carmen’s Union Local 589, and Coleman Nee, the former MA Secretary of Veteran’s Services, on behalf of Disabled American Veterans (DAV).
In addition to the E line closures, the proposed cuts across the MBTA system in the middle of a pandemic are incredibly harmful, particularly to the veterans, essential workers, low-income seniors, communities of color, and people with disabilities who rely on the T every day. We’ve seen the MBTA make service cuts in lower-income urban communities before, and often what’s framed as a temporary cut becomes a permanent one, worsening the transit inequities that plague our city.
We also need to recognize the climate implications of deep across-the-board service cuts like the MBTA has proposed. To put the MBTA into a death spiral like this, with fewer and fewer people feeling they can rely on it for their daily transportation needs, would be disastrous for our climate goals.
Resolution in Support of State Bill to Include a Boston Seat at the MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board
Filed with Councilor Ed Flynn
Boston has the greatest ridership and the most MBTA stops of any municipality in Massachusetts. The residents of Boston rely on the MBTA every day to get to work, school, small businesses, and basic services, yet Boston does not have a seat at the table when it comes to important decision-making at the MBTA.
Recent harmful cuts to public transportation Boston residents rely on show us what happens when the people of Boston are not represented on the Fiscal Management and Control Board. We know that there are countless Bostonians that are having a harder time getting to their jobs, elders and folks with disabilities that now have to travel further - or are unable to travel - to the nearest transportation stop.
Passage of S.D. 1313 would give Boston representation on the Fiscal Management and Control Board, allowing Boston to achieve more effective oversight of the critical public services provided by the MBTA.