MetroWest Wants Rides To And From The MBTA
Region difficult to reach from points east, transit officials say
The year-old MetroWest Regional Transit Authority wants to run shuttle buses along Route 9 during morning and evening commuting hours, stopping at a few key locations before heading directly to a Green Line stop.
Ed Carr, the authority's administrator, said he recently notified the Metropolitan Planning Organization of his intention to submit an application for a federal Department of Transportation suburban mobility grant to run the shuttle service.
The MPO is one of 13 regional planning organizations that determine where federal transportation funds will be spent and would probably approve or deny the project a few weeks after it is submitted, Carr said.
"The process of studying the shuttle proposal and negotiating with the MBTA and the MPO about the details has just made me more convinced than ever that this is a service that is really needed," Carr said.
While studying the situation, he said he was surprised to find how many companies view the reverse commute the proposed shuttle service would serve as a big plus. A lot of companies have workers who live in Boston or suburbs like Newton and find that public transportation is just not available at the right times.
There From Here
"It is really hard to get out here in the morning," Carr said. He envisions service with several buses running every 20 minutes or so during three hours in the morning and evening from a yet-to-be-determined Green Line stop.
Carr would prefer Eliot Station because it is on Route 9, near the corner of Woodland Street in Newton, but it is not handicapped accessible.
The MPO has suggested Riverside station on Grove Street just off Route 128, or Woodland Station, which is on Washington Street in Newton because they are both handicapped accessible.
Eventually Carr would want to add in runs in both directions at noon as well.
"The shuttle is a great idea, and it's ideas like this that show how important starting the MetroWest Regional Transit Authority was..." said State Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Framingham, who helped spearhead the authority's creation in the legislature last year.
"This was one of the only regions in the state that did not have its own transit authority," she added.
Spilka said the lack of public transportation in such a densely populated and business-rich area like MetroWest is crazy, considering the constant congestion on all its major arteries.
"I've talked to people who have lived here their whole lives, and in the 1950s there was bus service along Route 9," she said. But now with many more residents and so many businesses cheek-by-jowl there isn't much available, although the MRTA has limited shuttle bus service along Route 9 in Framingham and Natick.
Paul J. Matthews, executive director of the 495/MetroWest Corridor Partnership, thinks the project has a lot of potential.
"I think it's a pretty creative use of funds," he said. "The suburban mobility grants have a strong record of rewarding innovation and this proposal would help multiple users and link different areas."
Work Around
Michelle Brooks of Waltham-based Transaction Associates helps companies like Staples Inc. of Framingham reduce the number of employees that drive to work alone. She sees the shuttle as a solution for many of those workers.
"The key thing I see about this proposal that would be advantageous is that a number of employees who live in the city would really like to take public transportation, but it's not really practical," Brooks said.
Because the Green Line runs much more frequently than commuter rail, and the shuttle runs would be timed to run every 20 minutes or so, Brooks said it would appeal to a lot of employees from big companies up and down Route 9 over driving to work.
This proposed shuttle would have stops at hubs like Doug Flutie Pass and other still undetermined stops in what Carr calls the "Golden Triangle" area of MetroWest along Route 9.
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