Weekend service returning across commuter rail system
Photo | Courtesy of MassDOT
An MBTA commuter rail train
Weekend service will return in July to the entire MBTA commuter rail network, nearly six months after the transit agency stopped running Saturday and Sunday trains on several lines amid upheaval from the pandemic.
The MBTA and commuter rail operator Keolis said Tuesday that all lines will again offer weekend service starting Saturday, July 3, with Saturday and Sunday schedules "identical across all lines."
The new schedule will add earlier weekend travel options aimed at shift workers in fields such as health care, even on lines that kept running weekend service over the past six months.
In January, the T eliminated weekend service options on the Fitchburg, Franklin, Greenbush, Haverhill, Kingston, Lowell and Needham lines. Ridership -- and with it, fare revenue -- cratered during the public health crisis, dropping to a fraction of pre-pandemic levels.
MBTA officials said weekend ridership has rebounded in recent months, now up to more than half of pre-COVID levels on lines that kept Saturday and Sunday options in place.
Officials originally floated mid-May as a target to restore weekend service after facing criticism for trimming service and receiving nearly $2 billion in federal emergency aid.
A summer schedule for subway and buses will take effect June 20, boosting service on the Red, Orange, Blue and Green Lines and dozens of bus routes that also underwent cuts during the pandemic.
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