The Way Forward | The WBJ Editorial
Not everyone who lives in Boston can work in Boston, and for a significant number of Beantown residents, going to work means coming to MetroWest.
So, news that the Boston-based Metropolitan Planning Organization has approved a MetroWest Regional Transit Authority shuttle to and from the Green Line along Route 9 is indeed a good sign. Simply put, an MWRTA shuttle is good for business and ought to be funded completely.
The approval is recognition, at long last, of what MetroWest employers have been telling the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for years: Employees would take public transportation from Boston to work in MetroWest if there was a convenient way to get from Green Line platforms to work and back during morning and evening commute times.
Stop Gap Measures
In the absence of such an option, some of the area’s larger employers like Staples Inc. in Framingham and The Mathworks in Natick, have hired private shuttle services to get their employees to and from the Green Line on time.
A public shuttle would allow those companies to relieve themselves of that expense if they so desire. It would also make recruiting employees from Boston easier for smaller MetroWest companies that can’t afford a private shuttle service, but want to assure potential employees that their place of business is easily and conveniently reached from the Green Line.
To some, catching a train in Boston, riding to Framingham, Natick or Marlborough, getting off the train and catching a bus to work may not seem preferable to driving.
But it is.
The interstate highway system and many inner-city expressway systems were conceived and designed by men who were openly hostile to public transportation. They ushered in the golden age of the automobile when the American ideal was a commute to work in the city from a peaceful home in the suburbs.
But today, legions of commuters in their misused wheeled status symbols keep the ancient, obsolete, poorly maintained surface streets and highways in and around Boston and MetroWest in a constant choke hold. Gasoline that costs more than $4 per gallon has proven that Americans do limit how much they are willing to pay for their driving privileges.
The result has been a newfound willingness on the part of the frugal and the thoughtful to embrace public transportation, which is no more costly or time consuming, and no less convenient, than commuting by car.
American use of public transportation is at a 50-year high.
Worcester Regional Transit Authority Administrator Stephen F. O’Neil told the WBJ last week that WRTA ridership increased 5.8 percent in the most recent fiscal year. The WRTA plans to spend more than $2 million on new buses and could begin offering a pass good for both the WRTA and MBTA systems. The WRTA, along with three other regional public transportation agencies, has applied for a $29 million grant to purchase fuel-efficient hybrid buses.
During the 2008 fiscal year, 375 million people took public transportation in Massachusetts, according to the MBTA. That’s 21 million, or 6 percent, more than in the previous year and an all-time MBTA ridership record.
According to the MBTA, the largest increase was among people riding buses and light rail like the Green Line.
The MWRTA hasn’t worked out a budget for the Green Line shuttle service, but did receive MPO approval for $400,000 to buy buses, and it has applied for $100,000 in state matching funds. The service must also gain approval from the federal Transit Administration and the state Executive Office of Transportation.
In a time of increasing demand for public transportation from both commuters and their employers, we hope both agencies — as well as local businesses and commuters — give the plan full approval.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments