Just two years after the opening of the MBTA light rail green line extension into Somerville and Medford, a piece of infrastructure decades in the making, local leaders and advocates are still frustrated by frequent delays, a lack of publicly available data and overall unreliability of the service.
“I think all of us had an expectation: You get a new train line, it’s going to work really well,” Somerville City Council president Ben Ewen-Campen said.
Ewen-Campen brought forth a resolution at the July 11 council meeting, supported by local transit advocates TransitMatters, that asks the administration of Gov. Maura Healey and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to improve the reliability of service in the region and provide more public data on the Union Square fork of the extension. The rest of the City Council co-sponsored the resolution.
TransitMatters analyzed departure data on the green line extension, finding that trains leave from the Medford/Tufts origin station on time just 51 percent of the time. By the time trains get to East Somerville station, just four stops later, the number of on-time departures drops to 35 percent. For trains headed north from East Somerville, only 19 percent leave on time and 23 percent are “bunched,” meaning the trains leave very shortly after each other, leaving a long wait time in their wake.
“When people can’t rely on the T, it forces people to drive more, it forces people to be late for work,” Ewen-Campen said. “It has a domino effect on increasing traffic, increasing stress.”
Express to bad outcomes
Ewen-Campen and TransitMatters executive director Jarred Johnson also take issue with the service’s frequent use of “express” trains, which bypass a number of local stations. Johnson’s supplemental report argues that the green line is not suited for express trains without a parallel track that can bypass local trains, and that express trains can confuse riders through their lack of scheduling and advertising, unnecessarily burdening non-English speakers and people with disabilities.
Express trains are only a Band-Aid solution, Johnson argues, and there are better ways to address long times between trains, known as headways. With the present system, Somerville riders pay the price for trains that were bunched earlier on the D and E lines and never fixed.
The green line extension already saw major repairs and delays in the fall, when the MBTA had to fix tracks built in the wrong gauge size.
“I’m sure this has hurt ridership”
When the T is less reliable, riders are forced to account for potential variability in their commute, Johnson said.
“I’m sure this has hurt ridership, I’m sure that some people have just decided it’s not worth it,” Johnson said.
The headways are about four to five times what they should be, Johnson said. Additionally, the MBTA does not provide real-time updates on when trains will leave origin points, such as Union Square and Medford/Tufts, which creates more unpredictability for riders.
“People who rely on mass transit need predictable and reliable service, and especially for a newly built GLX terminus we should expect such service,” the resolution reads.
A good that could be better
When Cambridge Day spoke with Somerville business owners in the fall, many reported no increase in customers from the new green line extension. One Union Square worker cited the train’s unreliability as a reason for the stagnation.
Despite his criticisms, Ewen-Campen said the green line extension has been “totally transformational” for Somerville and that the MBTA has been a “great partner” with the city.
“It’s just not as reliable as it needs to be,” Ewen-Campen said.
The Ward 3 councilor said he doesn’t know what is causing the unpredictable departures, and that’s something he’d like to learn from working with the transit agency.
MBTA officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Asked about the complaints, an MBTA spokesperson submitted a statement: “The MBTA is committed to improving reliability across the system, including reducing headways on the green line.”
A stronger
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Where to even begin? Root causes are A) total incompetence with dispatch from Medford, B) just bit enough trains, period. Inbound in the morning, they’re full by the time they get to magoun or Gilman. Outbound in the evening they’re packed when they get to lechmere. They’re late and bunching because of the crowding, then leaving people stranded and pissed. I’ll also throw in C) Their idiotic fare system on glx. That’s a whole other topic. Finally, D) Broken signaling and stealth slow zones on their brand new line. Oh, wait, I forgot to repeat, E) NOT ENOUGH TRAINS. MBTA clearly underestimated how many people they’d be moving . Seriously, next time I get kicked off at East Somerville because the train is going “express” I’m just going to hold the door open into they reconsider. They are not saving any time by kicking everyone off, is just sad.
It is pathetic that the state has a system with so much potential and wastes it. The state makes the system useless and then uses lack of ridership as an excuse to keep it useless. All while our roads and air are choked with cars and their pollution.
At least the bones will be there when future generations fix the mess.
It really does make you wonder, why did you spend north of $2B on this if you’re not even going to operate it properly. I’d challenge the governor and Eng to ride the Medford branch a few times during rush hours and see if they think this is working for anyone.
For what it’s worth, it is my understanding that Philip Eng rides the Green Line, but he gets off at Lechmere. I base this on a first person report from a friend and neighbor who recognized Mr. Eng on the Green Line and had a conversation with him with another passenger. According to my friend’s report, the conversation was cordial. Maybe it was the only time Mr. Eng ever rode the Green Line, but that was definitely not my friend’s impression. I always figured that’s why we got the Green Line fixed first, but that’s total speculation on my part. And, yes, they could definitely use more trains and a more useful arrival time monitor.
The random express trains are extremely frustrating. Seeing next train in 2 min only for an empty train to fly by a platform full of people is just infuriating.