The MBTA is preparing to unveil the much-anticipated redesign of its bus network, which it has been working on for the last three years. The agency plans to add new bus routes and increase the amount of service by 25% on weekdays and by 70% on weekends.
As MBTA General Manager Stephen Poftak told the agency's Board of Directors this week, "Our bus system is an accretion of routes dating back decades ... This area has experienced dynamic change. As someone who grew up here, I'm always amazed when I go to a variety of different places that are now either housing or employment centers that were not, even a decade ago. So, we need to have a bus service that changes with it."
“We're going to increase by the hundreds of thousands the number of people who now have access to high-frequency service,” Poftak said, adding that high-frequency service is defined as a bus at least every 15 minutes throughout the service day.
The MBTA will release its proposal and map on May 16, then hold a series of public hearings before the new plan is formalized.
According to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo, implementation of the redesign will take place in phases over five years starting in the spring of 2023.
"Implementation timing will be dependent on interdependencies of the new network, operator availability, transit priority, and other operating requirements," he said.
The MBTA is concerned about accomplishing this redesign as it faces an ongoing shortage of bus drivers. Poftak said some progress has been made in hiring and training, but more than 200 new drivers are still needed to provide the service as planned.
Ridership has continued to increase after a dip in early January that the agency has attributed to rider hesitancy during the omicron-fueled surge in COVID-19. The bus system is averaging 70% of the passengers it had in 2019, with subways at 56%, and the commuter rail around 40% of its pre-pandemic ridership.
Although ridership may be growing, there is concern that not enough passengers will return to MBTA services to prevent serious budget problems moving beyond 2023, with federal pandemic relief aid set to run out in June, 2023 at the end of the fiscal year.
