Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) led a group of city councillors, interest group members and private partners onto an EZRide shuttle alongside commuters in an effort to keep the service free and running throughout the day.
Pressley said she took the shuttle “to demonstrate in real time and give visibility to what has been a very effective mode of transportation for people.”
EZRide was started in 2001 to help Red and Green line commuters get to work faster during peak work hours. The shuttle service is run by the nonprofit Charles River Transportation Management Association (CRTMA) but paid for primarily by private employers.
Until 2020, the service also required a fare for most riders, but that was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. After Covid, free service was extended for a two-year pilot program, thanks to grant funding the CRTMA obtained from the state and an additional million dollars from the Kendall Square Transit Enhancement Program (KSTEP). KSTEP, administered by the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, runs a fund developers are required to pay into to help mitigate the cost of new transit demand. The pilot program also expanded hours the shuttle is in service, making it available during the workday and on weekends.
For almost a year and a half, the shuttle has transported people between Cambridgeport and Boston’s North Station from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends.
The two-year pilot program is scheduled to end in July 2027.
Providing the “last mile”
Pressley and officials such as councillors Marc McGovern, Patty Nolan and Cathie Zusy rode the shuttle along with commuters from Lechmere Station to Kendall Square. The trip took about 15 minutes, roughly half what it would take to walk.
Rider Emma Rasmussen said she started using the service when her car broke down earlier this year. “If I lived anywhere else,” she told Cambridge Day, “I wouldn’t be able to get by without a car.”
EZRide is a key element in creating alternatives to driving, said Melissa Zampitella, executive director of the Alewife TMA. Alewife operates two shuttles linking large residential properties and businesses to the Alewife MBTA station. “It’s that last mile,” said Zampitella, that makes the difference between whether someone drives or takes transit.
Growing in popularity
Tuesday’s event began at the offices of local developer DivcoWest, one of the 25 area companies that have helped fund EZRide since it was established. During a presentation, officials shared that while peak commuting hours remain the most popular, one in five riders use the service between the expanded hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition, the shuttle has already provided more rides than in all of 2025, and shuttle usage has been higher year-over-year every month.
Pressley said EZRide is exactly the type of initiative that she hopes to bolster nationally with her Freedom to Move Act. (Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is the lead sponsor of a similar bill in the Senate.) That act would create a $5 billion competitive grant program for state and local fare-free transit.
Pressley said she grew up riding the “excellent” public transit in Chicago for everything from getting to a healthcare appointment to grocery shopping to going to school. “We did everything on public transit, so that’s really what guides me,” she said. For many people, including in congressional districts with high income inequality like hers, “public transit is not an option. It is your only choice.”
Congress, however, has allowed the Freedom to Move Act to expire at the end of every legislative session since Markey and Pressley first proposed it in 2020. President Donald Trump has proposed cutting funds for transit.
“We are living in a fascist state”
At a press conference after the trip, Pressley was asked about Monday’s Homeland Security Investigations raid on the home of fellow Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). “I don’t know how many more examples people need that we are living in a fascist state,” Pressley said. “This hostile administration continues to weaponize the Department of Justice against their political enemies.”
Omar has been the subject of a criminal probe by the DOJ and Minneapolis U.S. Attorney’s office. The Trump administration has also targeted officials who are women of color, like New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Pressley said the purpose of these incursions is to create a “chilling effect” ahead of this year’s midterm elections and called on people to vote. “I need you to vote as if everything depends on it because it does,” she said.
Pressley spoke briefly with Cambridge Day after the conference about the importance of continuing to deliver on constituent services, like those her proposed legislation hopes to fund, despite federal instability.
“It’s both the work of resisting and mitigating these acute harms while also working actively to advance progress,” she said. “This is so much bigger than Democrat versus Republican. I’m just appealing to people of conscience to do the work that [we] were sent to do, and unfortunately, a lot of my colleagues across the aisle are more concerned with keeping their jobs than doing them.”
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