MBTA ridership has slowly ticked back up in recent months as the agency has made improvements to service, General Manager Phil Eng said Wednesday. He said last month alone, T ridership grew about 6% over the prior month.
“We have made dramatic improvements today, but we’re not done. We know we have so much more to do,” he said on Boston Public Radio.
Now that the T has gotten rid of slow zones across all of its subway lines , the agency is focused on replacing train cars, improving station accessibility and upgrading the system’s signaling system, which tells trains when they can move. He says by upgrading signaling from analog to digital, the T will be able to make trains more frequent.
“If we don’t stay persistent on top of the things that we’ve been fixing, the building for the future is harder. But we have a commitment to doing both,” he said. “How do we meet the needs of today but build for the future?”
One long-awaited development is coming later this month: South Coast Rail .
Service begins March 24, connecting Boston’s South Station to Taunton, Freetown, New Bedford, Middleborough and Fall River for the first time in 65 years. Eng said they’re incentivizing people to hop aboard with free parking through the end of April and free weekend rides. The T says riders will need to tell a conductor of their origin and destination stations in order to get a free ride on the Fall River/New Bedford line, which is the formal name for the new route.
“Every little bit counts. We want people to really experience what it can be [like] to just sit back, let us do the driving,” Eng said. “It literally is a 90-minute trip if you go end to end. And I know how long it could take to drive; I’ve seen the traffic. It is the best way to go.”
As the MBTA plans for the future, Eng said he’s hopeful they will be able to weather the storm if any federal budget cuts hit Boston’s transit system.
“If those dollars don’t come to fruition, we’re going to have to figure out how to maintain our existing infrastructure,” he said.
Eng says despite threats at the federal level, he believes Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed budget puts the T in a good financial position for the year ahead with dedicated funding from the Fair Share Amendment, also referred to as the “millionaires tax”.
“It’s given us that breathing room,” he said.
