[SPEAKER_21]: So, hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's community meeting for the bus network redesign project. My name is Reagan and I will be serving as the moderator for tonight's meeting. Next slide. I would like to note that all MBTA activities, including public meetings, are free of discrimination. The MBTA complies with all federal and state civil rights requirements preventing discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, limited English proficiency, and additional protected characteristics. We welcome the diversity from across our entire service area. If you have any questions or concerns, please visit mbta.com forward slash title six. That's title. V. I. To reach the office of diversity and civil rights. Next slide. I would also like to remind everyone of the rules for participating in this meeting, as well as let you know that this meeting is being recorded. Before we can begin tonight's presentation and conversation, I do have to review a few technical aspects of the Zoom platform. Next slide. We have ASL interpreters tonight for the meeting. If you would like to view the ASL interpreter at all times, please keep your view settings in gallery mode. To pin the interpreter's video, click the ellipses in the top right corner of the interpreter's video and select pin video. You will need to repeat this process each time we switch interpreters. We also have interpreters tonight who are translating the meeting into Spanish and Mandarin. If you require these services, please click the interpretation button on your screen and select which language you wish to hear. In addition, we will be holding breakout sessions later in the meeting. If you would like to be in a Spanish language or Mandarin language breakout room, please message a project team member in the chat so that we can move you into the appropriate discussion section at that time. I'll note at this point that after the breakout sessions, we will come back together as a group to hear comments from elected officials and then Q&A tonight. At this time, I will ask that all English language speakers select English as their chosen language. This will allow you to hear translated non-English comments during the Q&A. Next slide. You can view closed captions by clicking the closed captions feature and selecting from the options shown. Show subtitle will display a caption at the bottom of the screen. View full transcript will display the meeting's audio transcription in a window to the right. Next slide. All attendees will be muted during the presentation to prevent excessive background noise. If you are viewing this meeting on a computer, you can toggle speaker view to see the presentation more prominently. If you are on a smartphone, you can swipe to change views. As I mentioned, later in the meeting, we will be holding a Q&A session. We ask that you hold substantive comments and questions until that point. If you have a technical problem, please share your issue in the chat feature to a member of the project team at any point during the meeting, and we will respond as quickly as possible. All project staff members are listed with project team next to their names in the participant list. I'll note that we are not, during the main meeting, accepting questions during the chat feature, so please only use the chat during this main portion of the meeting for technical issues. At any point tonight, if you use inappropriate language, you will be removed from the meeting. And now I would like to introduce Justin Antos, Senior Director of Bus Transformation at the MBTA, who will begin this presentation. Justin?
[Unidentified]: Thanks, Reagan. Good evening.
[Justin Antos]: My name is Justin Antos. I'm the Senior Director of Bus Transformation here at the T. I am excited to be here tonight to kick off this second public meeting in this phase for our bus network redesign. This is the second meeting on the topic. For those of you who tried to join the first but were unable, we apologize for the technical limits. And we thank you for joining tonight where we are back with a much higher participant limit on this Zoom platform. And for those who weren't able to get in, we apologize for that. Why am I excited tonight? Well, I think as we all can agree, transit is essential to our region's economy, and I'm excited about it. Especially post-pandemic, MBTA buses showed that they serve our most transit dependent populations. Early in the pandemic, bus ridership was the most resilient of all MBTA modes. But our region has changed over the past few years and decades, and we need a bus service that changes with it. It's essential that the MBTA's bus network adopts to how, where, and when people are traveling now, because it is different than what it was in the past. Back in May, we released a draft bus network proposal And over the summer, we received over 20,000 public comments on it. We've reviewed all of those. We've read all of them. And we've had dozens of meetings with cities, residents, elected officials, conversations at bus stops, and learned over the past few months of what folks liked and what folks didn't like about the proposal. We said that we would make meaningful changes based on what we heard. And we are here tonight to tell you about not only what we heard, but what we changed in response. I will say the public comment period for this specific proposal ended last summer. And the goal tonight is for us to explain what we heard last summer and also how we responded to it and how we changed in response. That said, our goal is still the same to create a better network more equitable service for our riders and transform the entire system by creating bus routes that are frequent, reliable, and connect to more places and are easier to use. How do we do that? We still plan to increase service by 25% across the network. We also plan to provide hundreds of thousands of riders with high frequency service. You'll hear that term a lot tonight. High frequency service means a bus route with a bus stopping at a bus stop every 15 minutes or better, all day long, seven days a week. Now, to make these improvements, we had to consider trade-offs and we were unable to make every change that you requested of us. We cannot please everyone all the time, but we did ultimately make changes to two thirds of the routes in the proposal that you will hear about tonight. So last, I'll close by saying that this is our bus network. It's not my bus network, it's not your bus network, it's not the MBTA's bus network, it is our network together. We know there are things in this plan that you like, and there are things in this plan that you might not like. But this is our bus system, and we care deeply about it. Everyone here on the team, including myself, ride the bus and care deeply about it. So I just wanted to say thank you for being here tonight, to help us build a better bus network.
[SPEAKER_14]: Now back to Doug Johnson, project manager for the Bus Network Redesign.
[Unidentified]: Thank you, Justin. Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us tonight.
[SPEAKER_10]: As Justin mentioned, my name is Doug Johnson, and I'm the project manager for Bus Network Redesign. Tonight's meeting will begin with a brief presentation about Bus Network Redesign and the changes that have been made to the proposal that we published back in May. As you all know, back in May, we published a draft network map, and we solicited public feedback on it through September. We ultimately received over 20,000 comments on the draft proposal, and we have incorporated that feedback into a revised network map that we will present to you tonight. I'll give a general overview of the changes that were made, and then we'll move into breakout rooms where project team members will give presentations about the changes made to specific areas of the network. In those breakout rooms, you will have the opportunity to ask questions about the changes that were made. After about an hour, we'll return to the main Zoom room for a Q&A session. At the start of the Q&A, we will call on elected officials first. If you are not able to stay for the whole meeting, but would like to leave a comment about the revised bus network, you can either post a comment in the chat, and we will add it to our records, or you can submit a comment through our online comment form. A link to that form will be posted in the chat for everyone to see. I'm going to keep my presentation here as brief as I possibly can so that we can go into the breakout rooms and folks can have the maximum amount of time to answer questions. But I do want to start by noting that bus network redesign is part of a much larger effort at the MBTA known as the Better Bus Project. The Better Bus Project is an initiative that's been ongoing for several years and encompasses a number of different efforts to transform, modernize, and decarbonize the entire MBTA bus fleet. That includes modernizing the maintenance and storage facilities, implementing bus transit priority across the network, things like bus lanes and signals specific for buses, as well as upgrading bus stops, making all of them accessible, changing the way that we collect fare on buses, and redesigning the entire bus network. So the bus network redesign is one facet of this larger effort and helps inform them and make all of them a possibility. The bus network redesign specifically is an effort to redesign the entire bus network so that it will better serve the needs of the region. As folks know, the bus network really hasn't changed very much in many decades. It's really a vestige of the old streetcar network that existed about 100 years ago. It hasn't really changed too much in that period of time, but the needs of the region have changed a lot. Even before the pandemic, changes in land use, changes in the way people get around, working hours, things like that, really created a mismatch between the bus network and the region. We're seeking to address that by redesigning the network so that it better meets the needs of people today. We started this process by prioritizing equity. That's the needs of the people who depend on bus service, most, including low income populations, communities of color seniors, people with disabilities, people who live in households with few or no vehicles. Those are people who are more likely to be dependent on transit to get around. So those are the people that we want to prioritize in this process and make sure that we're really serving as well as we possibly can with the new bus network. We're providing more frequent service in some of the most populated places, providing more all day service, creating new connections to more places, especially outside of downtown Boston, creating a network that's simpler and easier to use. And as I mentioned, creating more transit priority and other infrastructure to generally improve the reliability and accessibility of the bus network. We've developed this revised network using a set of service design principles and the public feedback that we received over the summer. We are prioritizing frequency over one-seat rides, creating more rapid transit connections and more crosstown routes, focusing on all-day service, to some extent combining routes to create high-frequency corridors, minimizing root variations and minimizing deviations on high frequency routes in order to improve reliability and make the network more legible and accessible to people. Public feedback was a really key component of planning the revised bus network. And we have reviewed all of the feedback that we received between May and September, including the feedback that we've received since then as well, because we keep getting more, of course. So we continue to review all that feedback, and we've incorporated the feedback into this revised network. As Justin mentioned, there are always trade-offs. We were not able to make every change that was asked of us, but we have designed a new network that is responsive to that feedback. The new bus network, just like as we proposed in May, would still increase service by 25% across the network. It doubles the number of high frequency corridors, which is a bus every 15 minutes or better, seven days a week from 5am to 1am. And when we say 15 minutes or better on many of those routes during certain periods of time like morning or evening rush hour, it would actually be more frequent than that. There are routes today that during rush hour are every four minutes or every eight minutes or every 11 minutes. And the intent is not to make those routes less frequent. The intent is to have 30 corridors across the Boston area where all day, every day, you know, on those routes, a bus is going to come every 15 minutes or more frequent than that. with the goal being that the routes are frequent enough that you don't even have to check a schedule. You know that you can just go to your bus stop and that in less than 15 minutes, you'll be getting on a bus there. We ended up making changes to two thirds of the routes that we had in that May proposal due to the public feedback that we got. The changes range from really small changes to the way a bus is routed through a neighborhood to wholesale changes to routes, in some cases, putting routes back the way that they are functioning today or functioned pre-COVID. So the changes really run the gambit from one end of that scale to the other. There were five main reasons why we made changes. The first was to respond to public feedback. The second was to improve access to hospitals, senior centers, and other destinations like grocery stores and shopping centers. The third was to reduce walk distances, especially for seniors and other riders like people with disabilities or mobility impairments, and especially in places with really challenging topography. There are certain parts of the bus network that are really hilly, and that can pose a really big challenge for folks trying to access bus service. In some cases, route may only be a block or two away but if it's up or down a really steep hill for many of our riders that can make that service inaccessible. The fourth reason was to preserve some existing one-seat rides to many destinations. So that's a situation where right now you get on a bus at point A and it takes you directly to point B and you don't have to make any transfers. In this new network, for some trips, there will be situations where folks that have a one-seat ride today may have to make a transfer to another service. But based on the feedback that we got on that draft network that we put out in May, we looked at many of those situations and in some cases put some of those one-seat rides back to the way they function today based on the feedback that we heard. The fifth reason for changes was to balance resources and make sure that we stay within the hard limits that we have. there are a maximum number of buses that we can run at any given time. So that's a hard limit that we have to stay within. And then there's the budgeted service amount that we had to stay within as well. And that's still 25% above the amount of service that was provided when I say today, in this case, what I mean is the amount of service that was provided pre COVID. This slide shows a general summary of many of the changes that we made. Not every route is listed here, but I do want to highlight some. There are some routes that we restored to their existing routing, either in part or in whole. The 55 is an example of that. So that route is going to continue to do what it does today, as opposed to what we had proposed back in May. The 47, part of it is in the new network. That was a route that was not in the May proposal. Part of it's in the new network. It also does some other things in addition to part of what it does today. I also want to mention the 354 is a route that we put back. The T39 is a route that we put back basically to what it does today from JP to Copley and Back Bay. Then there were routes that we rerouted to better provide better connections to medical facilities, senior housing, and other destinations, as I mentioned. Routes like the 8, the 11, and the 12 were all changed. The 11 will now serve Tufts Medical Center from South Boston, as it does today. The 8 and the 12 were modified to better serve Boston Medical Center. And you can see many other routes here that we modified for similar reasons. There were some routes that we added to the new bus network that were not in that May proposal. Many of these were routes that we added in addition to some of the other changes that were made. The 113 is a brand new route from Chelsea to Somerville that is a one-seat ride from Chelsea to Assembly Row. And then there were some routes where we modified the frequency or span of service. So that's how often it runs or what times of day it runs, but where we didn't make changes to the route themselves. So the SL2, we had proposed it being peak period only on weekdays. The SL2 will continue to be seven days a week in this new network. then there were some routes that had been included in the May proposal but are not in the proposal now due to other changes that we made. So the 20 was a route that had been in the May proposal, we've removed it because we put the 201 and 202 back to the way they are today. So many of these changes are related to one another and when we go into breakout rooms the facilitators in those rooms will speak in more detail about these routes and they will show you maps that allow you to see what the change was from the May proposal to now. Information about the revised bus network is publicly available. The list of changes made to the main network is posted on the project website along with an interactive map and a static PDF map. There is also an online comment form where folks can submit comments to the project team about the revised network map. An equity analysis of the revised network is underway and will be completed by December, and there'll be a public meeting on the evening of December 8th to present the results of that equity analysis. We anticipate implementation of the new network to take about five years, beginning in 2023. And over that five year period, we intend to make changes to routes incrementally every year until by the fifth year of implementation, the whole network is in place. The MBTA and many transit agencies across the country are facing bus operator shortages at the moment. And as you all know, this is something that we are working to address as we go through the phases of implementation, with the intent being that we will increase our operator headcount over this period of time so that by year five, when the whole network is in place, who will have all the operators on board necessary to provide this increased level of service. You can continue to stay informed about this project and the process of implementation by going to the project website. You can share comments through the online feedback form and the link to that is on this slide. You can also sign up for updates about the project by email by going to the project website. And now I'll turn it back over to Reagan, who will discuss how the breakout rooms will go.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you, Doug. So, let me put my spotlight on. So, as Doug mentioned, we will be having some presentations and breakout rooms by area to answer your questions about the map. We have them listed here and I'm going to read them out loud because of the, so the interpreters can. Translate them. So, breakout room 1, which is room 1, when you see the breakout rooms listed is Chelsea, East Boston, Everett, Malden, Melrose, Redding, Revere, Stoneham, Wakefield, and Winthrop. Breakout room 2 is Beverly, Danvers, Lynn, Linfield, Marblehead, Nahant, Peabody, Salem, Saugus, and Swamscott. Breakout room 3 is Burlington, Medford, Winchester, Woburn. Breakout room 4 is Arlington, Cambridge, Charlestown, Bedford, Lexington, Somerville. Breakout room 5 is Boston and Brookline. I will note that this does not include East Boston, Charlestown, Austin, Brighton, or the Neponset area. Breakout room 6 is Belmont, Needham, Newton, Waltham, Watertown. And breakout room 7 is Avon, Braintree, Brockton, Canton, Dedham, Hingham, Holbrook, Hull, Milton, Norwood, Quincy, Randolph, Walpole, Westwood, Weymouth, and the Neponset area of Boston. So next slide please Doug. So, each breakout room will have a group leader, a facilitator and a presenter who will give you a short overview of the sort of the rules for the breakout session and updates on the network. Since we released the map, they will then answer your questions about the map. If you want to visit more than 1 breakout room, you can switch between rooms at any point. You will need to leave the room. You'll click the leave room button. Come back to this main room before rejoining a different breakout room. So, we are supposed to reconvene here at 60 minutes. So, Doug, I know that. The slide says 715, but I think we will reconvene at 730. And then we'll have the elected official speak and Q and a the next steps. If you cannot stay for the entire time after the breakout session, you can complete the online comment form and Amanda has already shared that in the chat here. So, with that, Shayna, can you pause the recording? Recording stopped and Doug, you can stop the screen share. And okay, and Amanda, can you now open the breakout rooms?
[SPEAKER_10]: I'll leave this up so that folks know which rooms to join.
[SPEAKER_21]: Okay, and if you have any difficulty selecting a breakout room to join, please just note what room you would like to join in the chat to a project team member. That would be Amanda or Shana and we can move you into that room. And I will now move into my breakout room and Amanda and Shana will take over.
[Unidentified]: Boy. That's why at least she's here. Recording in progress. David, can you confirm, can you see this presentation I'm sharing? Yep, I can see the presentation and your video. Super. Okay, do you want to get started with the intros? Yep, so everybody can hear me?
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes. So I'm David Baumgartner with the project team. I also wanna introduce Melissa DeLea with the MBTA, who will be answering questions here tonight. There's an expectation for participants to share your feedback in a respectful manner. We want all participants to respect one another. In order to, ask questions, please do so via the chat. We will not respond to questions via DM. If someone is a phone only participant, they can ask questions by dialing star nine, but verbal comments are restricted to phone only folks. explain that the facilitator will be reading the questions and sharing with the presenter during the Q&A. So please, you'll find in the chat somebody who is asked questions here. They are co-hosts in the chat. So on the right side or on the bottom, please direct any questions to ask questions here and we'll make sure to get your questions. If you want to move to different rooms during the session, you can choose leave room, go to the main room and then select a new room. And this meeting should go till 7.30. And then we'll go to a full Q&A with the entire group. So again, I'll pass it over to Melissa to talk over the route changes in these neighborhoods.
[Unidentified]: Thanks so much, David. And my name is Melissa DeLay, and I'm the Senior Director of Service Planning for the MBTA. You're in the breakout room for Burlington, Medford, Winchester, and Woburn. So as Doug and Justin mentioned in the first part of the presentation, we did make meaningful changes to the network map based on the feedback that we received. Here's a sneak preview of some of the routes that we'll be talking about today here in this group. We have the 87, 89, 100, T101, 131, 134, 354, uh, 95, T96, 99, uh, and some others, uh, 80, 89, 134, uh, whether those were restorations of existing routes or route changes to better serve, uh, important, uh, destinations. Uh, in some case, those might be new routes added, but we did also have a few routes removed. So I do want to make sure we have ample time for questions. So I will jump in to the route-specific changes. So one of the biggest comments that we heard from Medford riders related to the T96. We heard that many riders of the 96 along Winthrop Street and George that had that the former proposal. would have kept service on College Ave. This was creating a hardship for them, and the walk was just too far, especially for seniors. So in this revised proposal, the T96 would serve High Street from Medford Square to Winthrop Circle, Winthrop Street, and George Street. This provides high frequency service to more riders, including some existing Route 94 riders near Winthrop Circle, and also current 96 riders along Winthrop Street right there, and George Street. Also, in the Somerville portion of the route, we also now propose a direct high-frequency connection between Davis Square, right there, and Union Square by extending the T96 terminus from Porter to East Somerville. That trip would have previously required a transfer in the original network. Next, the other biggest change I would say for the north side routes relates to the express route 354. In the original version of the network, there was no Express 354. We had redrawn the service to feed local service into the subways to the north. But one of the things that we heard a lot of was that the travel times were not competitive and there was a lot of interest in retaining the direct connection into downtown Boston. So in this revised proposal, the 354 would continue to do what it does today and would serve Burlington, Woburn, And Medford, Burlington and Woburn are shown on the right version of the map. And the Medford Square stop is shown on the left side of the map during rush hours on weekdays. There are a number of other network changes that flow from this, both from resources and also from a sort of service design. So I will get into those as we continue. Another of the major gaps that we had heard that we'd had in our initial version of the network was related to the route 80. We did not have the route 80 at all in our initial proposal due to substantial overlaps with the new Green Line extension that's slated to open later this year. But one of the gaps that this meant was that there is not a direct connection from Arlington Centre and Medford Street over to the new Medford Tufts Green Line station for 80 riders who might currently work near Lechmere or similar areas to be able to continue making their trips. In the revised proposal, we do restore the Route 80 connection from Arlington Center to Boston Ave and to Medford Tufts GLX station, and then we continue the service to Davis Square from Powder House for a redline connection. This also becomes the primary Boston Ave connection to the Greenline Extension Station at Medford Tufts, as this replaces the proposed 94 that had been on Boston Ave and which I have a slide on later. At the outer end of the Route 80, you also see that this is proposed to extend beyond Arlington to Winchester, Woburn, and Burlington as a 350 replacement to Burlington Mall Road, 3rd Ave, and North Burlington. And this would also provide those locations with both green line and red line connections at Medford Tufts and Davis in lieu of today's 350 connection at Ailey. Next, route 87 Arlington to Lechmere. We formally had proposed significant changes to route 87. You can see the original proposal on the left. However, we heard a lot from Somerville and Cambridge about this, especially on the loss of service to Market Basket from Clarendon Hill and Lechmere. On the Medford end, we also heard concerns about traffic and congestion on Harvard Street and with the loss of service on Mystic Ave north of Harvard Street. So in this proposal, we've restored the Route 87 as a direct route from Arlington Center to Lechmere Station seven days a week, which is actually different than today's 87 that only operates to Arlington Center six days a week and terminates at Clarendon Hill on Sundays. This does mean that there would be no service on Harvard Street in Medford where we had proposed running new service and we would maintain service on Mystic Ave in Medford. That's the section here. Mystic Ave in Medford and Somerville via the 95. So here's the route 95. Because we restored the 87 to Lechmere, which took buses off of Mystic Ave, we are restoring the 95 to continue providing service on Mystic Ave towards Sullivan, as shown on the right, which serves parts of Medford poised for a substantial redevelopment, and is similar to what most 95 trips do today. Compared to today's 95, there would be one consistent service pattern. The route would go from Arlington, Arlington to Sullivan consistently, rather than the current service pattern where some trips start in Arlington and some start on Placestead Road. Also, the frequency of this route is slated to improve to every 20 minutes, mostly seven days a week, with some every 30 minutes service after 10pm. This fills in a gap between the three new high frequency corridors that are proposed in Medford. Next, we have bus route 89 and T101. One of the other biggest things that we heard in Somerville and Medford was the lack of connection in our original map between Winter Hill, Ball Square, and Davis Square. On the left, you can see our original proposal, which had new high-frequency routes, but no 89 toward Davis and no bus connections at Ball Square. In the new map on the right, you can see the proposed Route 89, which would operate consistently with a single service pattern between Davis and Sullivan, with a stop near Ball Square Station on the Green Line. For Route 89 users, note that there would not be a mix of some Clarendon Hill trips and some Davis trips. For connections to Clarendon Hill, please use the 87 or 90 and connect at Davis. Now, as a result of the 89 restoration, we have also proposed keeping the T-101 route on Main Street, that's this stretch right here. You can see it had been sort of squared off to serve Lagoon Square here, but we're proposing to keep it doing what it does today, using the stretch of Main Street, which serves a little farther north on the Medford side of Winter Hill, while the 89 will serve Lagoon Square on Broadway. Roots 94 and 134. This one gets a little complicated. So the 94 formerly had been proposed as shown on the left to connect Burlington Mall to Davis via Woburn and Winchester. And the mall had been separated from the other 350 Burlington local service to make both services more direct and appealing as an express service replacement. Now that there is no route 94 in the revised proposal, instead, we propose restoring the route 134 from North Woburn to Winchester, Medford, and Wellington Station, along with changes to the 80 and 354. There's a few reasons for this. One, there was a problem with the original Route 94 and the turns near West Medford Station due to the railroad crossing and intersection geometry. Also, we had a lot of interest in restoring the Route 354 express route in Burlington, but that led to other network changes as a resource offset. Then there was the extension of the Route 80 to Burlington Mall that I spoke about on an earlier slide. And I do want to note that with this change, nearly all of the proposed 94 is covered now by the new proposed 80, 134, and 354, except for Placestead Road and Medford, which would not have direct service. It's entirely within 0.5 miles of other bus service on High Street or Winter Street. Also note that the proposed 134 on the right would be a little different than today's 134, and that it's proposed to go down Locust Street in Medford near the Wegmans. It also would have more consistent service with more full trips and fewer of those short trips on nights and weekends that only go as far as Medford Square. Next, we have some changes in Medford to the 99 and 108. Bus route 99 was proposed as shown on the left and would serve Middlesex Ave in Medford and Wellington station. Based on feedback that we heard regarding the loss of service to Commercial Street near the Super 88, Medford Street near some medical facilities, Cambridge Health Alliance and others, and also other locations in Everett from current 97 riders, we've extended the 99 as shown in the center map like a 97 through Everett to the Gateway Center and on to Wellington. The Middlesex Ave portion of the route would still be served by the extended 108, as shown on the right, which had formerly terminated at Malden. So overall, we end up with kind of one more segment of route in the mix, which allows us to get closer service right over here to the to the Super 88 and over here for some of those other medical facilities and other locations, getting folks within. Bus route 100, this had been proposed to continue via the current terminus near Elm Street and then across to Governor's Ave. over by Lawrence Memorial Hospital, and then up Winthrop Street near Medford High School, terminating near Playstead Road. Since it's part of the other changes, we have restored the 134 to connect Wellington to Medford Square and Winthrop Street. This stretch here is now covered by the 134. We've proposed that the 100 should terminate as it does today near Elm Street. There would be no service on Governor's Ave. bus routes 133 and 131. The 133 initial proposed route is shown on the left. In the new network, there is no route 133, but we have modified our proposed 131 route to provide some of the functionality. So the 133 did include a new service to Anderson-Woburn commuter rail and had been part of a package of changes to create more local bus service instead of the express services in Burlington and Woburn. However, with the restoration of the 354 express route, one of the trade-offs that we made was to truncate new service extensions. So you can see that we're no longer showing bus service to Anderson-Woburn. North Woburn service will be part of the restored 134 route that I spoke about previously here. The local Woburn, Stoneham, and Melrose connection will be part of the Route 131 that also serves more of the east side Melrose rather than being a dedicated new Route 133. So I promised I'd keep these as brief as I could. So now we want to make sure we have time for your questions. So if you can, please, if you're at a computer, you can enter your comments, questions into the chat and be sure to select Don't direct message me personally. We have a team of folks who's helping to facilitate this. So send your message to the person who is named ask questions here co-host. And they will help to facilitate getting your questions answered or your comments recorded.
[SPEAKER_09]: We've already gotten some questions in, so everyone can continue to put your questions in the chat to ask questions here, but the first one, I'll start with an easy one. What does the T in the bus route name stand for? For example, T96.
[Unidentified]: That's a great question. So that's a working name. I don't know that that's going to be the final name once we get to everything, but we wanted to symbolize for any of those high frequency routes that these were something different, that these are the routes where you don't even need to look at a schedule card. You can just sort of show up the way that you might show up for the number one bus or the 77 or a number of our other high frequency services. We'd also debated calling it high frequency, let's call it the F route, but that could have kind of a negative connotation. So we were sort of thinking that we could riff off of, you know, how people talk about generally when they're taking the subway, they want to take the T, but we wanted to emphasize that all of our modes, even bus modes, can have high quality, high frequency service. So it was riffing off of our name, the T, but it really just symbolizes that it's a high frequency route and the name might change. That's a placeholder.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, thanks. We also have a few questions around West Medford, specifically around the 94 bus. So I'll start with the first one. How will individuals in West Medford readily access Davis Square and the Red Line, particularly MGH, without the 94 bus line? And how will they access the Green Line at Tufts University Medford Station?
[Unidentified]: That's fair. Let me pull up one of the previous slides. But if there's a different route, I can also pull up our Remix map that we've been using to show things. Let me actually switch to my 80 and my 96 map. So for part, it depends on which part of the 94 you're coming from. If you're on the section between High Street, between Medford Square and Winthrop, that would be a case of being able to switch to using the new 96. So that's not someone who'd be served by the 96 today, but is proposed to be on the new rerouted 96 now that we've routed it farther over to get to Winthrop. But that doesn't serve everyone because today the 94 does continue across here and to Boston over here. Boston Ave, is that Boston Ave? Boston Street and this stretch here. So depending on how far you're going, some folks who are kind of close to that split might find it advantageous to walk to the high frequency service and that would take you directly to the red line if that's where you're looking to get to. Other folks, and actually that would also take you to the Green Line for folks who are looking for that Medford-Tufts connection. Because right here where it says Tufts University is where the Medford-Tufts Green Line station should be opening later this year. For folks who are coming on the Boston Ave portion of the route, this will take you to both the red and the green lines. And so for the folks who are kind of near West Medford commuter rail station, it kind of depends on just how far it is you are from those two connections because the proposed 95 that's here would take you either to Arlington on one end or to the orange line on the other end. So for folks who are specifically looking for the green line or the red line, You could either take it, it will be a higher frequency service so it would be every 20 minutes, which would allow for better improved connection quality, going from there to probably I would go to the T96, which gets both of those. routes as a transfer opportunity, or depending on, you know, if you're close enough to Boston Ave to head directly to where the 80 bus would take you to Medford Tufts Station or Davis, that might be an option that's preferable. It sort of depends on where on the route you are. Okay.
[SPEAKER_09]: There's also some questions about the Route 80 and is the frequency going to increase on Route 80 with the changes to removal of Route 94?
[Unidentified]: Right now we're proposing that the Route 80 would be about every 30 minutes during rush hours and about every hour at other times, though that's a starting point depending on the ridership loading that we see. We still are governed by our service delivery policy, which has sort of allowable crowding so as needed kind of for any actually for many of these routes depending on the crowding levels that we see there may be adjustments up or down well to get better frequency if required by the crowding that we see. And I do want to flag one thing I am getting a few direct messages so be sure to send those directly to the person who is named Let me look at my chat to make sure I'm getting it named correctly. I think it was called ask questions here, exclamation point co-host, because that's where we're having all the questions teed up that we're going to be reading into the account. So don't direct message me, Melissa, personally, but send your messages to ask questions here. Sorry, could you repeat the question? Was I in the middle of one?
[SPEAKER_09]: I think you answered that one. There was a request to show the connection between West Medford and Davis Square again. So I think you just, did you just, is there a slide that you can show that on the screen?
[Unidentified]: Yeah, well, I was sort of pointing at the background of this slide because I have the slide. If it's easier, I can also pull up the remix. There's not a single route in the same way that if you were at West Medford next to the commuter rail station, there is one route, the 94, that will get you from this stretch here. of High Street over to Davis Square. So depending on which part of West Medford, you can either walk to where this green line is shown. This is the route 80 bus that is coming from Arlington, but that depends on where on the 94 if you're located. Or if you're closer to Winthrop Circle, you can take the T96. Or if you're right in the middle and walking to one of those two routes is not an option, you can take the more frequent 95. That would be the route that is traveling up and down on High Street here. And I have a map of the 95 that I can show you. you can take the 95 from here. But as you can see, the 95 connects to Arlington Center, or the 95 also connects to Sullivan. It does not have that red or green line connection like folks have been requesting with the 94.
[SPEAKER_09]: Switching to another part of the network, will the T101 extend from Sullivan Square any further?
[Unidentified]: So the T101, as we had shown in our original version, oh gosh, okay, I'm gonna stop projecting this slide and I'm gonna actually pull up the remix map because this is one that I'm very excited about showing you. So let me just pull up my remix map. And the reason we didn't have that in this presentation is because it hadn't changed between the May version of the proposal and now. But it's still something that we're very excited about because it's one of the, we mentioned that we were doubling the number of high frequency corridors from today, there's 15 high frequency corridors and in the proposal, we're doubling that number to 30. I can share my screen momentarily. Okay. And can you see a map? Yes. Okay, super. So in the proposal today, the 101 starts at Malden, goes to Medford, and then continues to Sullivan. In the new version of the proposal, we've sort of spun off the Malden portion to be part of the 96 bus. So the T101 is a high-frequency service that would start at Medford Square. It would continue up to kind of the backside of Winter Hill and then it would follow Broadway into Sullivan just like it does today. But from there, it would continue kind of knitting together these parts of the network that are very close to each other, but that can be very awkward to get between. So it would continue past Sullivan Square, down Main Street through Charlestown, knitting together Charlestown that has been so isolated from so many other parts of Somerville and Medford, even though it's very, very close. And then it would go over the Gilmore Bridge into Lechmere and then also would continue and terminate at Kendall Square. So this does a few different things. It means that getting between Charlestown and Kendall, between Charlestown and Somerville becomes a lot more possible. It knits together anyone from Greenline Extension Territory who can connect at Lechmere over to Kendall if there's interest in getting to the Red Line. So this is something that we're very excited to right now. If I were traveling between Charlestown and Kendall, you'd pretty much have to go all the way into Boston and then back out. That could be kind of too uh, subway rides plus a bus ride, uh, for being something that's really quite close. Uh, so I think it could be really quite transformative to have this, uh, new connection knitting together these, uh, very close, uh, communities.
[SPEAKER_09]: All right, another route is the 134. So it has now gone back to the low frequency it currently has. That makes it quite difficult for people to get to Wellington T Station if they live off of Riverside Ave in Medford and are not close to Medford Square. An example is Carolina Street. Can you describe your thoughts behind that?
[Unidentified]: So this one is a mix. It would be every better than 30 minutes during rush hours. So depending on when someone's traveling, though it would be lower frequency during the non-rush hour parts of the day. I'm not familiar with where Carolina Ave is, but I'm going to zoom in over here and see if it pops out. But here's Medford Square area. Now, Medford Square would have multiple connections. From Medford Square, there would be the high-frequency T96 coming here that connects to Orange Line on one end and Red and Green on the other. You also, in Medford Square, are close enough to get to the T101, which can get you also Orange, Red, and Green Line connections. And in Medford Square, there would be the 354 makes that express stop for folks who are there. So I don't know if any of those are close enough or Just the right I see there it is okay Carolina is farther down this this stretch here. So. Right, we added a lot of high-frequency services onto the map. Medford didn't have any high-frequency services in the first version of this. Somerville didn't have any. Malden did not have any. But we weren't able to cover the entirety of all the cities with high-frequency service. Now, we can certainly, this isn't the plan forever. So we can continue to monitor ridership and see what things look like. Depending on how far down Caroline is, know how far that is to get up to Salem Street, which would have better frequency. That's probably a bit far, that's over a half mile walk. So that's what I can offer.
[SPEAKER_09]: There's also several questions about implementation, specifically timeline for when the changes to the 96, the 94, the 80, and these other routes will go into effect. And secondly, if there's any infrastructure changes, things like removing parking to make buses more reliable in this area that are planned as part of implementation.
[Unidentified]: Thanks for that. That's a great question. So right now, we're hoping to get conceptual approval of the overall plan. And the implementation is slated to be phased over a five-year period, starting the soonest would be sort of middle of next year and continuing for five years after that. We haven't finalized which routes everywhere would be sort of bucketed into each individual years. There are a number of different constraints that we're thinking about as we move forward. In some regards, one of the constraints we're thinking about is operator hiring. So rather than try to hire 25% more operators, so kind of putting a number, we need 750 new bus drivers to implement the entirety of this plan. But rather than try to hire that all at once, we would phase that over five years. So in any one year, it would be a much more manageable number, say a net increase of 150 operators each year. So we would look to phase that over time, and also some of the changes. For example, not necessarily the changes here. Some of the other changes, for example, in the Longwood medical area, or some of the changes in Boston might require things like new transit priority to be constructed through some very congested areas where we're concerned that without the priority, some of those buses might get stuck. So Longwood Medical Area or there's a section of D Street in Boston where you know the road today is one way and we would like to have two-way bus service so there are some actual curb construction changes that we would need to do in order to unlock some of the route changes here. Now many of these other changes are more of a matter of changing the signs and changing perhaps a couple bus stops, or actually most of these are on places where we have existing bus stops. So the vast majority of stops are in locations that already exist and might not be a constraint. So while we haven't finalized the exact phasing of which changes would be implemented when, Those things that have more construction would probably be more closer to the end of the window, whereas things that are more easily implemented, where it's a matter of changing out the signs and changing out some schedules, those might be the things that are implemented earlier. in the schedule, but we'll be communicating the timeframe as we get closer to implementation. This is more of a conceptual level. And as we get closer to implementation, we would finalize more of those discussions on, okay, well, now we need to talk about parking at this particular bus stop, or we need to think about some of the other treatments or bus stop locations, etc.
[SPEAKER_09]: How will those changes be communicated over time? What's the best place for people to find out about the changes?
[Unidentified]: That's a great question. We will probably have another round of meetings just to sort of get onto people's radars that these changes are coming for informational purposes. And then also it would be a multimedia approach We'd have also folks who are subscribed to our T-alerts. We would make sure that we're pushing out notifications about changing schedules and routes out to different sources for folks who've subscribed to our meeting series here. We would continue to use those contact lists that we've developed through this process to kind of push out updates as this continues into the implementation phase. But let me flag that for Justin Antos, who's our Senior Director of Bus Transformation, and see if I can ask him to clarify some of those in the larger session. I think that would really be valuable to hear for the full group.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, let's go back to the 96 bus and people are wondering about connections specifically to Harvard and if that's going to be maintained.
[Unidentified]: Right, so we were looking at the 96. Let me pull that up here to show you. So there are a lot of things that we're looking to do differently. So this gets new connectivity from many parts of the 96, which today starts in Medford Square. So this gets new Orange Line connectivity out to Malden. It maintains the Red Line connectivity here and the Green Line. comes up here, but today the 96 takes a turn onto Mass Ave near just north of Porter Square and continues via Mass Ave into Harvard. So this does not continue to provide that direct connection to Harvard, though it does add some new connectivity to Union Square which has a ton of development going on. Every time I travel through the area, I see another story, it seems, added to some of the buildings over there. So for anyone continuing to locations either at Harvard in particular, or even locations along Mass Ave, you have a couple different options. From Porter, if you're traveling to portions along Mass Ave, there's a transfer available just across the Star parking lot there at Porter. To the 77 or for folks who are traveling specifically to Harvard near the red line station, I would recommend that folks get off at Davis and transfer to the red line with the future purchase of the new red line vehicles, we are buying more. of those redline vehicles. We have a whole redline transformation program that is looking at getting more of those vehicles, making other signal and infrastructure changes so that we can get up to operating, I think they're saying three and a half minute headways on the redline. So I know it can be a challenge when thinking about the state of the redline now. I know it's not up to its full potential right now, but That transfer would be a much improved transfer once we're able to get more of the red line transformation and get more of the vehicles and allowing and more motor person hiring, which would allow us to get better frequencies on the red line too.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, Winthrop Street in the Hillside neighborhood of Medford. People are asking why there's no direct service from Boston Avenue in West Medford to Madrid Square and the intersection of Boston Avenue and High Street is too far to walk for elders living in the majority of West Medford. So I think that was probably a combination of a couple of questions looking at both Boston Avenue and Winthrop Street in West Medford, how to get to Medford Square and to Davis Square, and then again from West Medford, how to get to Davis Square and to Medford Square.
[Unidentified]: Got it. Certainly, I know from today, you know, traveling from the intersection of Winthrop at Boston Ave, there's the 94 today. Now in the future, depending on folks' mobility levels, it's Let's see if I can draw. Oh, sorry. It's... Oh. Sorry, my drawing tool is not working. But it's a short distance to get from Boston Ave to George Street. Easily less than a quarter mile. I want to say eyeballing it. I apologize. I can't get my drawing tool to work correctly there. But I recognize that not everyone's mobility allows that flexibility. So there's still a possibility to get there with a transfer between the high frequency T96 that serves Medford Square and comes down Winthrop Street as far as George Street. So the walk distance from here to here is much shorter than actually what had been in our original version of the bus network redesign map. I recognize that when we had had the T96 in the earlier version stay entirely on College Ave, it had done something sort of like the T101 over here on Main Street and then come down this stretch. So that was a much longer walk that we were asking folks to make from this area to get over to the T96. So I think that with the T96 being high frequency every 15 minutes or better, seven days a week for 20 hours a day from 5 a.m. until 1 a.m., that it's kind of more of a drop to get folks to be able to walk, say, to this stop right here on George Street to get to Medford Square. And also for folks who are getting from West Medford, I did touch on this earlier, uh there would be the the primary connection for folks who are sort of on this stretch of high street in say west medford uh would the primary uh connection is the 95 which would be every 20 minutes or better uh which is much better than uh today's frequency uh it can be especially on weekends the the frequency uh can be much slower than every 20 minutes, and it would be possibly, you know, every 30 minutes after 10 p.m., but for the bulk of the day, seven days a week, this would be a more frequent service than it is today. And also it would do the same thing all the time, so you wouldn't have every 40-minute service out to Arlington during the peaks, and then every 40-minute service out to Pleistead Road, and then they overlap. But you would have one consistent service pattern. So it makes for a far more legible and easy to understand. So, for folks coming from West Medford, if they're close enough to walk to say Boston Ave for getting over to the Green Line which I think was the request. Some folks might do that if they're not close enough. Say they're kind of in the middle here. Folks would have an opportunity to maybe take the 95 to Medford Square and transfer to a T96 or a T101 or a 354, depending on where they're looking to travel to.
[SPEAKER_09]: OK. I'll just know that we've got about 15 minutes left in this session. If you have questions, please ask them to ask questions here, co-host, in the chat. type it into that box. Let's just switching over to the 325 and 326. Are those routes coming back and does Medford have any direct connections to downtown Boston?
[Unidentified]: right? There are no proposed 325 or 326 that we're drawing in this map. The only direct connection to downtown Boston that we're showing is the Express 354, which is pretty much a continuation of what we do today with having the 354 make the stop in Medford Square, but that just serves Medford Square directly. That doesn't serve farther out on Salem Street or Playstead Road or High Street and some of the other locations. Instead, we've really reoriented the network around Medford to have more high-frequency connections, more all-day connections. And overall, there's more service that we're showing on the map in Medford than there was pre-COVID. We wanted to be a network that works seven days a week. and takes advantage of the new Green Line connection so that it can really be a feeder into these resources, the Red Line and the Green Line and the Orange Line that are so close by, rather than having the express services, which are more costly to operate. But we recognize that those are also very popular, which is why we did restore the Medford Square express stop. And what's the frequency and span of the 354? It's similar to what it is today. So it's about every 30 minutes, but it's rush hours only. So this at a very broad strokes level is showing six to 9 a.m. and four to seven, but it would be largely similar to what's operating today. Some of these buckets don't take those too literally. These were sort of simplifications that we used for the overall resource estimation.
[SPEAKER_09]: Question on the 95. Is that route still passing by Assembly Square and Kensington Street?
[Unidentified]: Yes, with the restoration of the 95 to Sullivan, that does mean that for folks who are looking to, say, get over to the assembly row area, there's the bus stop kind of near the Kensington Connector, see if I can zoom in and find it. where they've made some pedestrian improvements to try to make that. It's still, I mean, you're crossing several lanes of traffic, so it's still a challenging area, but they've made a number of pedestrian improvements to improve lighting, improve the legibility of those pedestrian crossings so that you can really stitch together the 95 and make it easier to get over to the restaurants and other destinations that are located over here at Assembly Road. So you can see there's the bus stop. I think that's the Kensington Ave stop in one direction for your outbound return trip. And then in this direction, it's very close to the stop and shop.
[SPEAKER_09]: Switching over to the 80, by replacing the Route 350 bus with the Route 80 bus, which stops will be removed between Burlington and Cambridge with the new route?
[Unidentified]: So the main change that would be in effect for the 80 when it goes out to Burlington, not that one, let's see, where's my 80? The main changes are primarily in the Arlington and Cambridge portion of the route. So the Burlington, North Burlington, up by, you know, LaCoshes and by the Wegmans in Burlington and by the Burlington Mall road stops for the Burlington Mall, those would generally be the same up through Winchester. the portions of the route where it would differ are entirely, once you get to Arlington Center, then it kind of travels over like an 80. So it means that it doesn't have the stops on Mass Ave between Arlington Center and Alewife Brook Parkway. And the only other stop that would change is the stop at Alewife Busway itself. But in exchange, you pick up both a Green Line location connection, and also there would still be a red line connection at Davis. So it's trading the one Alewife terminus for a red and a green. And there may be folks who are traveling locally along Mass Ave, which would still be served by the T77 bus for folks who are looking to transfer. OK.
[SPEAKER_09]: The 94 bus, is that route going away? And specifically, is there a route going up and down Boston Avenue?
[Unidentified]: Right. So in the new proposal, there is no 94. There would still be service up and down Boston Avenue on the 80, but it would be the only bus that is on Boston Avenue, unlike today where you have both the 80 and the 94. by kind of decreasing the number of routes that we have overall. That's one of the trade-offs that we were able to make so that we could make a lot more high frequency routes, so that we could make the T96 be every 15 minutes or better, so that we could make the T101 be every 15 minutes or better seven days a week. So there may be fewer routes on the map. And yes, there's not a 94 in the proposed new network, but there's still more service hours because the routes that are there, we've generally tried to make more of those high frequency, high quality routes, but that takes resources. So the way that we were able to kind of afford some of those changes besides we're also adding resources, but that also took sometimes reducing the number of direct connections that you can get to from a certain location.
[SPEAKER_09]: All right, a couple of implementation questions. How do you plan to address bus bunching and are there still going to be changes from this version of the proposal?
[Unidentified]: Great question. So bus bunching is something that we're still very interested in. I would say that's something that we can work on in parallel with thinking about where the routes go. So the bus network redesign is one piece of an overall program that we're calling the Better Bus Project that is looking at how we can transform bus service and make it better. As part of that, there are other things that we are doing, looking at things like how do we improve dispatching, or honestly, even with getting more operators, that can address some of the bunching issues we might have just from not having enough resources on the line to begin with. But we're also looking to partner with municipalities to look at opportunities for signal priority or other transit, either signal priority or other priority features like lanes, queue jumps, stop consolidation, many different tools that we have in the toolkit that can help improve bus service. And then, you know, it's not all about the infrastructure, we're separately working with our customer technology department to look at ways to you know, give our dispatchers better tools so that they can monitor service at the end of the line, make sure that things are, especially for those frequent services where it's, you know, just trying to maintain regular even spacing, you know, how can we make sure that we're dispatching appropriately, that things are leaving at least from the ends of the line reliably. Now that said, I know there can be delays that accumulate along the route, but making sure that terminal operations work well. So there's many different things that we would be looking to do as part of the larger Better Bus project to think about bus bunching, but that's kind of like a parallel track to what we're talking about here, which is the bus network redesign and where the routes go and how frequently the buses come, et cetera. Okay, back to West Medford.
[SPEAKER_09]: Specifically, there's some concerns about from people who are mobility limited or seniors. I think specifically off of Boston Avenue and trying to get to Medford Square. How are they able to get to Medford Square?
[Unidentified]: Right, so getting from Boston. Do we know which section. It sort of depends. There would either be a transfer between the 80 bus that we have traveling up and down Boston. or for folks, you know, who are able to, you know, if you're on this stretch of Boston Ave near Harvard Ave and you're in a position to get up to High Street, certainly there's the 95 connection to Medford Square from there, or if you're closer to have the Tufts end of things near Winthrop, if you're in a position to get to the George Street stop, that would take you to Medford Square. But, you know, for folks who might be, you know, right smack dab in the middle, that would be a transfer for folks from the 80 bus here to the, probably the T96 would be the most frequent service that I would look for a transfer.
[SPEAKER_09]: We've got about three minutes left. So on, sorry, specifically the intersection of George and College Street, will traffic signage change at that intersection?
[Unidentified]: At George and College? Yes. I I don't know what is required to, we haven't tested every single turn on this. I know we do traverse that intersection, though it's, I'm trying to remember, let's see, the 96 today is taking a slightly different route where it's, I think it's coming down. George and it goes straight across through. So we have bus service going through this intersection today, but it's not taking that turn directly onto College Ave. So we'd have to check and continue to work with our municipal partners to see if there's some sort of change that might be required as part of that. We did also have the diverted When the Route 80 was on diversion, I know we were also using College Ave to get around the Broadway Bridge at Ball Square. But I forget which approaches. I think we were using George to this stretch of college. So we've used We've used three out of the four legs of that intersection, just not this particular combination of turns that is shown for the T96 here at Georgian College.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay. I think we're able to get through most of the questions. One just came in about parking on George Street. Is there going to be any proposal to remove parking on George Street?
[Unidentified]: We haven't gotten to that part of the plan yet, but I mean, we already have bus service that's using George Street today for the 96. So my first instinct is that if we have stops and we have two-way bus service on George Street, now that said, if we find out because of the turn on George onto College that we might need to swing wide, there might be limited impacts, but we haven't gotten to that level of analysis yet. So that's kind of my off the cuff first, first hunch reactions. But again, this is a conceptual plan. We haven't done all the design details for full implementation. So stop level changes or parking impacts usually would be kind of figured out as we get closer to implementation and refine the specifics of the plan.
[SPEAKER_09]: All right, it looks like we're going to be removed from this session and we move back to the main room. There'll be further opportunity for questions in that. Yeah, it looks like less than a minute. So further opportunity for questions there in the main room if anybody has them there. So thank you everybody for attending this breakout.
[Unidentified]: Agreed, appreciate everyone's time. Thank you. Recording stopped. So, Doug, I think everyone might be back.
[SPEAKER_21]: Do we want to start the recording now?
[Unidentified]: Yes, we can go ahead. Recording in progress.
[SPEAKER_10]: All right, welcome back. Everyone, thank you very much for participating in the breakout rooms, we hope that we're able to answer your questions about the changes that were made from the May proposal to the revised network that we have available for you to review now. I do want to reiterate that you can find more information about the revised network map on the project website. On the website there is a list of all of the changes that have been made to the proposal that we made back in May, as well as an interactive map and a static map that show the revised network. So all of that information is available on the project website. We are also developing materials that describe how this revised network relates to the network that exists today so that folks will be able to go and see what their route will do in the future or what their trip will be in the future. So that information or those materials are being developed. They are forthcoming and we will be posting them on the project website as well so that folks will be able to use those to understand the changes that will be made to the network in the future.
[SPEAKER_21]: Look, before we go on, I just want to remind everyone now that we're back in the main session. If you could recording stopped. You can set your languages again to English. That would be great. Or the language of your choice.
[Unidentified]: Recording in progress. Thank you. I think we can go to the next slide. And I'll turn it back over to Reagan.
[SPEAKER_21]: So, before we open the comment and question section to the public, we would like to invite any elected officials in attendance to ask questions or make comments. So I'd ask all the elected who want to speak tonight to raise their hand. And if those of you, if you're not an elected official, if you could lower your hand until we reach that point in the meeting. That would be great. So, I do see representative. So, I am going to unmute you now, and you should be able to speak.
[Unidentified]: We try it 1 more time. Can you speak now representative. Trying 1 more time represent calling you might be should be able to unmute yourself. Hello there we are hello.
[SPEAKER_24]: Sorry about that. You can hear me. Yes.
[SPEAKER_24]: Terrific. Well, thank you for taking me out of turn and thank you once again for the presentation this evening. I made a number of substantive comments at the meeting a couple of weeks ago. Certainly, I think we recognize many of the improvements from the first iteration. One particular substantive issue that I've heard repeatedly is that under the latest plan, there is some cuts in the 68 bus, the duration of that bus. And this is a bus I've worked closely with folks at the T to preserve service. It's been targeted for cuts at different points over the past few years. And so we've been grateful to the extent we've preserved service on the 68 bus. And I would ask you very respectively to maintain at the very least the existing service. Frankly, I'd like more service on the 68. But at the very least, if we can at least continue with current service, I think that would be important from an equity standpoint. You know, overall, Cambridge is a wealthy city, but some of the neighborhoods I represent face very elevated levels of poverty. We have some of the most diverse neighborhoods in Cambridge that are served by the 68 bus, places like the Port neighborhood in Wellington, Harrington. And so this is a route that's very important to connecting residents of the Port and Wellington Harrington to other vital civic destinations, whether it be the City Hall Annex or the public library or CRLS. So that's really one of my main focuses. And then finally, I'll just say more briefly, in terms of process, And, you know, on the one hand, I really think all of you working on this are doing the best that you can, so I appreciate it. Nevertheless, it's my understanding that this whole redesign will go before the board of directors for the T on Thursday. And, you know, I think on the face of it, that raises some questions. We know that the public meeting a couple of weeks ago went completely off the rails when numerous residents were unable to enter the meeting due to the capacity of the Zoom. And I think that really speaks to what's going on here. You literally are redesigning a hundred or more bus routes. And so there are a lot of moving pieces. And I can say as a state rep, I've come to every meeting I've been able to come to. I've written a nine page letter. And I continue to stay engaged. And for me as someone who, you know, is treating this as my full time job. It is challenging to keep up with and so I can only imagine as a member of the public who may be doing this in their free time, how difficult it would be to engage and so You know, one possibility, and I'll close here and yield the floor, I don't want to take up too much time, but one possibility might be specifying a real defined process before a bus route is actually eliminated or before service is cut. And so I'm envisioning perhaps if this current iteration of the draft gets approved, perhaps that approval could be sort of a conditional or a provisional approval and that there would be a bit more public process in the future before there'd be any service cuts. And maybe that would involve, you know, 90 days of notice. Maybe that would involve an opportunity for any concerned members of the public or elected officials to review those potential cuts before the MBTA board or someone else because you know we just we don't want to be in a position where three years from now or four years from now we're told well you know this change is happening because a few years ago. a decision was made and we know how things change. So that would be my final comment would be just to contemplate building in some additional process so that folks aren't freaked out that a decision is being made that they don't understand. So thank you once again and look forward to the rest of the meeting.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you representative, I will. Note, because I think some people may have just joined us that right now we are in the portion of the meeting where we're inviting elected officials in attendance to ask questions or make comments. So, if you're not an elected official, I would ask that you lower your hand right now and wait for the main Q and a section. And if you are an elected official and would like to speak and just joined us, feel free to raise your hand and we can take your comments. I will now turn to represent. Oops, and I will unmute, you know. And you should be able to speak.
[SPEAKER_14]: Hi, thank you so much for your time. I want to, first of all, thank you for all the work that you've done, and thank you for the revisions. I think, from my perspective, a lot of my questions from the draft maps have been answered. And I just want to particularly call out the reinstatement of the 74. I think the Concord Ave service in Cambridge was a real weak point of the previous maps, and bringing it back to at least present day strength is going to be important, especially as that area increases in population. I hope we can continue these conversations. And just along the lines of what my colleague, Rep Conley said, I hope that this is a conversation and not just something that's set in stone. But I'm hopeful that through this process, we will continue these conversations as we go forward. I do want to mentioned one thing, and then I will yield. Really, I think we heard a lot about the express bus from Watertown, from Newton, from Waltham. I really think reinstating those express buses is going to be really important, particularly as work gets done at Newton Corner, work gets done on I-90. I think we're gonna really want to have as many options for people as possible so that we can decrease the amount of single occupancy car trips from the Western suburbs. So with that, I just wanna put that a bit of context in the public record and thank you all for your time.
[SPEAKER_21]: Sorry I lost my unmute button. Thank you very much for your comment tonight. Representative Ryan, I see your hand is raised. I'm going to unmute you now.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's great. Can I do video too? Oh, that's fine. Hi, thank you very much. Thanks for your time and for this process. I had asked a question in the breakout room too and I wasn't sure if I could answer it. I was switching over from my computer over to my phone. But I guess the main question I have is what is the balance between sort of ridership numbers and the quantitative data in the qualitative data and us telling a story for the five reasons that you use to change routes. One was topography. Charleston is built into Bunker Hill, that's the name, the Bunker Hill everything. But yeah, we're taking away a route that serves five elderly homes, and they're being told, well, if you want to get to downtown Boston, just climb the hill that's 120 feet above sea level. And I know there's at least 200 people rode in to try to take another look at the 92 bus, which will end up being the, I believe the T107 or T101. So I just like to know how much of a balance do we have between where this process thinks the buses should go and how the residents today currently use them and folks who also don't have Um, great access to zoom into the internet. I mean, I was going myself to the elderly buildings, the senior center that is served by the 92 and helping people write letters because they don't typically use these type of devices. Um, and how do we balance that and how do we balance it when it's a one neighborhood of 15,000 people? when we're in zooms with cities of 70,000 people. How much do the municipalities weigh in against 15,000 neighbors who are using me as their advocate? And I also just wanted to add in there too, part of that story is The brunt that we bear of this system in Charlestown, the bus yard to make all this happen, makes Sullivan Square inaccessible for us during the rush hour commute. We don't use as residents Sullivan Square Station. That is used for the surrounding region to get buses and trains to where they need to use them. Even if the ridership data isn't there, the story of why we need the T in Charleston and the isolation we have, because we have been the transportation nexus for the New England region since the Middlesex Canal was built, and that story I think got lost. when you looked at two thirds, you looked at all these routes, it only fixed two thirds of them, unless the one route in Charleston that got changed did not get looked at. So help me find that balance, please.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you, Representative. Melissa is, I don't know if you wanna respond to that.
[Unidentified]: Certainly, I wasn't in the Charlestown group, but I'm very familiar with those root changes. And we weren't always able to make changes. We did hear from a number of writers who are very interested in preserving that direct connection between Charlestown and Main Street, specifically to downtown Boston and to Chinatown and to a number of other locations where folks are traveling to. In this particular case, with Many of the other changes that we were making, for example, we are upgrading both the main Charlestown corridors, both of them to high frequency service with service every 15 minutes or better, seven days a week for 20 hours a day. And also, both those lines have a lot better connectivity to red line and orange line and green line. And there's new mobility. So, yes, there are some folks who to continue going into downtown Boston would take a transfer to the orange line, either at Sullivan or at Community College for the proposed T-101. Or, you know, if some folks are able to transfer between the T-101 and the new T-7, that might be something that's also an option depending on folks' comfort level. But with the improvements of high frequency, those transfers should be less onerous than they would be today when service might be every 20 or 30 or even less frequent depending on, you know, when someone might be traveling, say, on the weekends sometime. And then at the same time, we're also looking at the Orange Line Transformation Project, which is slated to get us, you know, we're buying new Orange Line cars and they're making a number of signal upgrades to allow for even better service on the Orange Line. So, By the time the Orange Line Transformation Project, I think they're slated to get to about four and a half minute headways. So trains that rush hours that are spaced every four and a half minutes apart, which is much better than what the transfer looks like today. So thinking about transfers in the context of the new frequencies and overall there's a lot more service in Charlestown. It was tough to be able to say that we could do all the things that we're talking about with better frequency without making some other changes. So there's a lot more service in Charlestown that should unlock the ability to make those transfers better, while also giving more direct connections to a lot of other places that today would require transfers. There's a lot more connectivity between Charlestown and Somerville or Charlestown and Cambridge, places that are very awkward transit connections to get to today.
[SPEAKER_10]: Representative Ryan, I'd also like to jump in here to add that You brought up some really good points about Sullivan Square being a huge barrier for residents in Charlestown. We know that's also the case for Rutherford Ave as well. Obviously, you know very well and all the folks in Charlestown know that there have been efforts underway for a very long time to reimagine what Rutherford Ave and Sullivan Square can look like. MassDOT and the MBTA are obviously engaged in those efforts and those conversations with the city of Boston about reimagining what Rutherford Ave will look like, what Sullivan Square will look like in the future. I also am working on a project that's looking at the possibility of extending this the silver line from Chelsea into Everett and potentially connecting to the orange line with one of the possible connections being Sullivan Square or potentially going down Rutherford Ave from there. So we are engaged in a lot of efforts right now to that seek to address a lot of these issues that you mentioned that are really a sort of consequence of the transportation infrastructure that is out there today. So we're continuing to coordinate with those efforts and in addition to the Orange Line Transformation, Bus Network Redesign, Sullivan Square Reconstruction, and the Rutherford Ave Redesign Reconstruction, I think will help alleviate many of the issues that are experienced by folks today in Charlestown being cut off from a lot of the rest of the region and impacted by that transportation infrastructure. So I just wanted to add that to the conversation.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thanks, Doug. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: And thank you for taking me out of turn. I'll be here listening. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: Excellent. So I think now, if we can go to the next slide, Shayna. So, I'm going to walk through the instructions tonight for Q and a. Um, oh, I think we have the wrong slide here. So, I think we are not going to do a chat questions tonight and we are only going to do Q and a verbal Q and a, um, for this meeting, um, in order to take as many people as possible. So, if you would like to make ask a question tonight, please raise your hand, or if you're on the phone, you can hit star 9. if you are speaking Spanish or Mandarin, you can raise your hand to provide your comments and questions verbally for the interpreters to hear and repeat your comments. So, when we recognize the name, you'll be unmuted and you may speak and after you share your comment, we're going to lower your hand and then you'll be returned to the muted state. Um, I will also note that, um, at some point in here, uh, I know that my breakout session had 1 or 2 questions that we couldn't answer in the main session. And, um, so we will make sure so we'll get to that, but if there's any other breakout room that had questions that we should address in this main part of the session, please let me know that as well. So, with that, it looks like James Williamson is 1st and James, I'm going to unmute you now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you hear me?
[SPEAKER_21]: Yes, we can.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, 1st of all, thank you for doing some verbal. a piece of this. I think it's always important to be able to have that opportunity. The chat can be really difficult. Brief comments on two routes. On the 83, I live it in Jefferson Park, out on Ranjav, right across from near the bus turnaround at Como Field. I'm really glad that you restored it to Central Square. I think you've done that for all, sounds like for all the right reasons. I think a lot of people are going to appreciate that who typically don't even know that this meeting is taking place, but it's the heaviest concentration of lower income people by more than double of any census tract in Cambridge, and they're going to be adding even more density to that, to at least two developments right along Ranjav. The thing about the 83 that I want to mention, and I did bring this up, It either wasn't really understood or it just wasn't explicitly addressed. The thing about the 83, yes, I understand that it's not going to be able to go to Alewife, but extending it to Fresh Pond would be magnificent. The 83 can take a left on Alewife Brook Parkway. In fact, They already do when the drivers can't make the turnaround because of a parking situation at the bus turnaround at Como Field. They do that anyway already. They go up to the airwaves, take a left, go down to the Fresh Pond Rotary, swing around and come back and start their next trip. Why not include that, at least some trips each day, so that people can get to the Social Security office, which is on Concord Ave, so that people can do shopping at Fresh Pond, and so there could be connectivity to the routes that were being discussed with Steve Owens and others, the 74, the 78. You know, I just think it's a great idea. People in the Cambridge staff have have took a look at it and were interested, but I think it'd be great. The other thing is the 68 sort of support what Mike Conley said, but add that it's not just to extend it to eight o'clock, but extend it. The main branch of the Cambridge Public Library is a magnificent library. It's extremely popular. Lots of people use it. And the 68 is really great to get from there You can take the 69 to Harvard Square if you're older and don't like to walk all the way to Harvard Square. But to be able to take the 68 in the other direction has proven great in my experience in the past, but only until 6 or whenever it used to run until. And if that could be – if you could look at, at some point, after Monday through Thursday, that library closes at nine and have the last trip eastbound to Kendall be something like, you know, 920 or something. I think that would be something really worth looking at. And I think a lot of people would really welcome that. And thank you for your participation and your work on this.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you so much. I don't know, Melissa, if you have anything you want to add to that.
[Unidentified]: No, I think that that stands alone and we have a lot of folks with their hands raised. So I want to give people a chance to talk. Wonderful.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you. I do actually, I'm going to ask Shana, can you go to the next slide? I want to make sure that we everyone has the links on their hand and I want to note that we're taking all the comments verbally tonight, not through the chat or through direct messaging. Before we get to the next verbal comments, I do want to address some of the questions that didn't get answered in breakout sessions. Melissa, I understand that in breakout session three, there were some questions about implementation and communications around that. I don't know, Justin, if you want to speak to that at all for the group.
[Justin Antos]: Sure, I can speak to that. While I can't commit to specifics at this point, I can talk about my philosophy and goals with the project as we move from planning into implementation. First of all, the reason the implementation phase for this project is so long, in addition to being dependent on capital changes, like infrastructure changes on the street that need to occur, it's for communication to customers. This network is a big change, and change is hard, and we owe it to ourselves as MBTA staff and to riders to slow down and make sure that everyone knows what's happening to their bus, because it's extremely important to folks. I know myself as a rider myself. We have some delay in the groundwork for our communication strategy right now. We are surveying riders, holding focus groups, et cetera, to understand how folks get information about their bus changing now, how they would like to get it, if it's different from how it is now, and what the MBTA is doing well and what the MBTA is not doing so well about communicating bus service changes now. We have a process by which we change bus service today. This will follow in the similar footsteps to that process, but with much more.
[Unidentified]: That's all I'll say, thanks. Thank you, Justin.
[SPEAKER_21]: I lost my controls again and then I know in breakout room 1, there was a question about the 99 and 7 street and access to the hospital there. I don't know. I think Rob, you might be able to answer that question for us.
[SPEAKER_13]: Sure, I'm happy to try and answer the question. So the question was, does the 99 as proposed in this new proposal serve 7th Street and the hospital as the 99 does today in the current network?
[SPEAKER_21]: I believe that's correct, yes.
[SPEAKER_13]: Yes, so the answer is no. We are not proposing to have the 99 serve 7th Street in a direct service to the hospital. This is because we are trying to get a more direct trip for all the people going back and forth between the portion of Woodland Road and then to Malden Center Station and then with the new routing of the 99 down into Points of Everett. So trying to get a more direct routing is really the primary reason for not having that service go to Southend Street. I'll also mention that less than a half mile away, the T101, excuse me, the T96, excuse me, is high frequency service that people can walk to that provides a 15 minutes or better level of service that is not so far away.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you for clarifying. All right, I think that addresses all the questions that were lingering from the breakout sessions that we weren't able to address there. So Betty Lowe, you've been patiently waiting and I'm gonna unmute you now and you should be able to speak.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Hi, thanks for this opportunity to speak. I just wanted to kind of tack on to what the representatives, the state representatives who were present at the meeting were saying, because it was honestly a little shocking to me, to hear from Representative Connerly that even as elected officials who follow issues, among which is transit, it's been a struggle for them to keep up. I try to keep up with these meetings myself. I have people in my network who rely on public transit And so, you know, given that the board meeting to finalize this design, or to approve this design for the implementation phase happens this Thursday, you know, is it the case that whoever gets shut out of these Zoom calls gets shut out? You know, there's been, and to follow up on that, you know, The answers that I've heard from this whole series of meetings so far are having very quantitative, very data-driven. You'll get bus service four and a half minutes apart, 15 minutes apart. It's very exact, which that supports bus service, but then you're missing a lot of the qualitative aspects of it. To Representative Ryan's point, he serves a district with five elderly homes. Um, you know, how are they supposed to get service, which I, I didn't actually hear. I don't think I've heard that addressed in, um, the replies from Melissa and I believe it was Doug. Um, so I guess, you know, I I'm concerned about the accountability. Um, it seems from this project, um, you know, the level of outreach and just the over reliance, um, on quantitative data rather than the qualitative experience for riders. Um, And this last point is more of a comment or suggestion for any future changes that might be made. But having these meetings on Zoom, it does shatter a lot of people. And there was another, the previous speaker, he mentioned that for folks in Cambridge, there are lots of folks that can't make it to these meetings. You have the interpreters, but then again, there are people that are just not online. I would suggest canvassing, you know, you have folks on your team, I believe, Marley is like me living on the South Shore. She mentioned using one of the bus routes. And so I think canvassing and talking to people who actually ride these bus routes and doing outreach that way, you know, that would have been that would have taken longer, it probably wouldn't have been, you know, as nearly as convenient as just looking at data. looking at things quantitatively, but it would have provided a fuller, more qualitative picture of how important these bus routes are for people and why. You know, you would really get to hear the stories behind why these bus routes are important for people. So thank you for your time.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you very much for your comment. I do want to clarify some things. I didn't include the information in this presentation, but I did include it in in previous meetings about the public outreach process that we conducted this summer so I do want to make a few notes here that We did not rely exclusively on virtual outreach or Zoom meetings. We did a really massive amount of in-person outreach. We had teams of folks from the MBTA, multilingual staff, going to bus stops, transit stations, and talking to riders in person one-on-one. distributing printed material to folks. We also met in person with many community-based organizations that helped convene their members and their communities and actually invited us to come to speak with them. And we provided interpretation services at a lot of those meetings for folks who don't speak English so that they can learn about the changes that we made. or proposed the outreach materials that we produced for this process were published in nine different languages and we brought them to events all over the bus network. We also ran audio announcements on all of the buses in the system so that folks who didn't necessarily find out about this either online or through ads or other means If they were riding a bus, they would periodically hear an audio announcement on the bus saying the MVTA is conducting a process to redesign the bus network. They want to know what you think. Here's the project website. Please engage in the process. We know that technology is sometimes a barrier for engaging in a process like this, so we made sure that all of our outreach was a combination of in person and online so that we can reach as many people as we possibly could. We ended up receiving over 20,000 comments on our May proposal for the bus network. And I think that's a testament to how much outreach we did across all of those events, both online and in person. So you mentioned canvassing. That's certainly something that we did as part of this process because we wanted to get the information out to as many people as we possibly could. Obviously, we know that We did not reach everyone that we wanted to. There were people who found out about this process later than we would have liked. We did our very best to get the information out to as many people as we possibly could and create as many different ways for folks to engage in this process as we possibly could, because we wanted it to be equitable and accessible to everyone. But to that point, we still know that there's folks who are still finding out about the process now. That's part of the reason why we added these extra virtual public meetings, why we've posted translated information online on the project website. So the list of changes that we made from the main map to now has also been translated into nine different languages and we are distributing it to our partners and our stakeholders and trying to share this information as much and as widely as we possibly can because we want as many people to engage in this process as possible. As Justin said earlier, we cannot do this process by ourselves. We need the help of our bus riders and the communities that we serve to really make this a better bus network. We conducted a really extensive process over the summer, and we know that there's still more work to be done there's still folks out there who don't know about this yet and need to hear about it and learn about it from us and have opportunities to engage in it so we are going to have continuous outreach. as we go through implementation about changes that will be made to the network. So we don't want to leave anybody out of this process or leave anybody in the dark. But thank you for your comment and for pointing out where we could have done better.
[Unidentified]: So we appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you, Doug. I will also note just for. I know we're going to keep going and answering questions, but for people who do need to drop off at any point there, there has been some interest in when information from this meeting can be available. And I do want to say that the presentations we will the recording of tonight. We'll try to get online as soon as possible. But the recording from the presentations on November. 2nd, which were actually a longer presentation than tonight are already online and you can access that material and you can even see the presentations by region or area. So I wanted to just make a plug that that information is already online. So I will actually note that I think there is a city councilor elected official who I did not address earlier with the earlier elected. So I'm going to call on them now. I think it's Medford city councilor Zach bears. My apologies, councilor should be able to speak now.
[Zac Bears]: Thank you so much. I actually was in other meetings, so I was popping in and out. Well, thank you for recognizing me and thanks for the detailed presentations that have been made. I just had two questions. In Medford, there was a lot of community grassroots outreach to, by residents to residents to get comments into you. And I do note that there were changes made to the plan that address some of those concerns. And I guess my two questions are this, one, Is there any plan to make any further revisions to the map at this time based on public comments received since the revised draft went out? And then secondly, since this is going to be implemented in phases over multiple years, is it possible that there may be future opportunities for public input? given that there may be additional resources put towards this project or changes that come up in the meantime, you know, we just have a lot of growth and change in our community. And I don't want to see parts of our community that may be, you know, much more, may have much higher ridership in two or three or four years left out because the ridership wasn't there today. So those are my two questions. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Councilor, very much for your questions. I will say that the revised network map that we presented today and that is available on the project website is what we intend to bring to the Board of Directors for their approval. But to your second point, with a five-year implementation timeline, we know that over the course of that period, circumstances may change, the conditions on streets may change, and we do anticipate that that may have an influence on the bus network and that we may need to make changes to the proposal in response to changing conditions on the ground over that period of time. A really good example of that is that right now there are many communities in the bus network that have ongoing planning processes or road reconstruction projects that will have an impact on the bus network. So we're continuing to work with all the municipalities in the bus service area to understand what the implications of any ongoing or future projects may be and how that may need to be incorporated into the future bus network as we go through implementation. there are actually some planning efforts underway that we have initiated as well that may also influence the bus network. So it is possible that in the future we may make minor modifications to routing that we've shown in this map in response to some of those on-road conditions. I think a good example of that is if we're showing service on a particular street today and say the City of Boston is a part of that we work with a lot around transit priority and we're showing certain routing for certain routes like the T7 through downtown. The City of Boston has an ongoing planning effort to figure out an ideal corridor from North Station to South Station for transit priority bus lanes continuously between those two points. So we're showing a particular routing for the T7 through downtown right now. but if the City of Boston through their planning effort and in coordination with us decides that the ideal corridor for transit priority is slightly different than what we're showing on our map, we will respond to that by working with them to adjust what we ultimately implement there. So we're continuing to have conversations with municipalities. We know that we are going to have to work very closely with all of our municipal partners and with communities and neighborhoods throughout this process as we go through implementation. So the short answer to your second question is yes, there are situations like that that will ultimately influence the final layout, so to speak, of the bus network.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thanks, Doug. So Robin Forrest, I'm going to unmute you now.
[Unidentified]: Thank you very much. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.
[SPEAKER_07]: OK. The 441 route is very critical to me. It's the bus that I take going to and from work. It's the bus I take going to several doctor's offices along Paradise Road in Swampskate. And it's also the bus I take if I need to go shopping in Vennon Square. I don't drive. I don't have a car. I've submitted several surveys to indicate this. I have never received a response. Just, you know, we got your submission. To me, adding service to the 442 route is not going to help me because I use the 441 route. walking three times the distance to get to the 442 route, uphill, carrying a laptop and a purse in the summer, in the winter when there's snow and ice, I'm not gonna chance falling uphill or going downhill to get to New Ocean Street. It's just, I don't think it makes any sense. You're taking away from some people and you're giving You're giving some people the bus lottery and you're giving them more service and you're taking away service and creating extreme hardship for other people. I mean, all the workers that are, you know, are in Vinton Square too, and take that bus to get, you know, to Lewis Street. Now they're going to have to go all the way to Lynn and then take another bus to get to Lewis Street. It's just, you, you, you, I don't think there's someone thinking, you know, there's little change that we're going to make you walk three times the distance, which is not really flat surface walking three times the distance, you know, and there's no, there's no shelter anywhere, you know, or for bus stops. So, you know, you can't stand out there for a longer period of times. You have to leave earlier is helpful. To me, I would just really like you to reconsider, please keep the 441 route. You're cutting off all access to Paradise Road in Swampskate. So I can't get to two in front work. I can't get to the doctor's offices. There's several doctor's offices and I can't get to shopping. So it's like you're rewarding Humphrey Street in Swampskate and Marblehead and you're taking away from the area I need. I just really wish you'd please just reconsider this. Cause I think you could just keep the 441 and 442 as is and things work fine. I don't see the 442 route, you know, being overly crowded when I'm waiting for the 441 down central square, because I'm taking the 440, you know, one to the 442 doesn't seem to be overcrowded. Cause you know, we're splitting up going two different directions. So I would just really like you to reconsider that. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you very much for your comments. I'm going to now turn to Sasha Merstein.
[Unidentified]: Yes, hi.
[SPEAKER_12]: So I will just read what I wrote, as I've been trying to express it on multiple occasions. Brighton is being ignored on all fronts. You could have stretched the 64 route to Oak Square, and you just forgot that all along. dropping the high-frequency T12 proposal. That was a good idea. That would have helped Writen. But now we are cut from the Longwood medical area, and it seems we'll just walk from Kenmore via the 57 that was ostensibly improved, yet is really maintaining the level of service that it has. Thank God for that. But walk from Kenmore, or simply avoid the LMA, as we've I won't get into specifics, but some have switched hospitals to not go there. And I know the doctors that live nearby aren't able to access it easily. So why would they even consider it? The 65 is effectively useless. Stretching to Oak Square would have made sense. And yet the route was split. Why was it split? If you're going to have an 85-minute ride that's 10 miles long that your bus drivers are complaining about, I do understand. But at least maybe stretch the 65 to Oak Square to tap in a greater population and give it access to the Longwood medical area that it really doesn't have or use now. Then the least that you could have done with a shortened crosstown route with 86, that's no longer will access Somerville on a one-seat ride, was to keep the 10 to 20 minutes weekday service to Harvard Square. That's, as far as I can tell, being cut back. And this was not clearly noted anywhere. It's being presented as a positive. But the reality is, we all know the 86 is one of the least reliable buses in the system. There are many problems for it. I understand that. I've been riding it for decades. But now that I uh, find myself, uh, in my first home in this community, uh, having invested in it because the 86 is here, it is so disheartening to see it go. It disconnects me from my mother. Uh, she walks rather than use it. And it also, uh, disconnects me from, uh, work meetings in Somerville. And honestly, I'd rather not go anywhere and, and, uh, um, continue to keep disconnected from the part that used to be, that our community used to be a part of. Little Cambridge is what Brighton was until 1874. But now, okay, this is where we are. So with that said, you're not making the bus usable. This isn't equity. Brighton's population grew nearly 9% on the 20 tons. It hasn't changed. since the 501 was introduced in the 70s either, yet you find it wise to cut the 501. Downtown revitalization possible from the historic linkages to Brighton in decades past is being cemented dead by this progress. And I know Justin said earlier that you're, oh man, I can't read my own notes here, but essentially you are looking to increase service services and being increased to Brighton has been decreased. And, um, it's disheartening and I would hope that you reconsider it wherever possible. I understand you need to find balance and I appreciate what you've, um, done, um, over the many months. I hope that you can find a way to keep Brighton included, stretch the 65 to Oak square and, ensure high frequency on 86 route, whether it's connected to the T109 or otherwise. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you for your comments tonight. I'm going to turn to Anita Lichtbau. I'm going to unmute you, Anita.
[SPEAKER_08]: Thank you for taking time to listen to my comment and question, and I want to thank everyone. First, I know this has been a very complicated project, and I'm sure you're trying to do the best for everyone. I want to talk about the Newton Express buses. I have ridden the 553, 554 for decades. I get on at Washington Street in West Newton. I don't understand why the MBTA is basically decimating the entire express bus system. This is not just taking one bus out or two buses out or three buses out, it's taking four buses out as express buses. And those buses were full during rush hour. I rode them for years and years and years. They were full. What I hear now in the breakout meeting was that, well, we reduced it because the ridership was down after COVID. Well, of course the ridership was down after COVID because you took out the express buses. So now what people are doing is either driving to work or not going downtown at all. And I just don't understand why you would want a system where people are now increasing traffic, increasing carbon emissions by driving, or just not going into downtown at all, when I thought what we were trying to do was make downtown Boston a viable financial center and a viable place where people wanted to go. So there are several problems with what the plan is. And let me just say this, that I don't see a single improvement to any MBTA service, bus service in Newton, none. They are all deterioration, they are all negatives. And I think that is really a shame. So the problems are the 553, 554, 556, 558, they're all local buses, as you know, and don't go downtown. So what that means effectively is that adds at least half an hour to the commute. And I know that because I have tried to take the 553 and 554 over the past few months. I have gone during rush hour, the height of rush hour, quarter to eight in the morning. I have waited, I would say, between 25 minutes and 40 minutes each time in Newton Corner for the bus to go downtown. There was not a single bus going downtown at quarter to eight in the morning to a quarter after eight in the morning. For that period, not a single bus going downtown. So the idea that there's gonna be more frequent buses is just not happening. And the buses that the 553, 554 used to run every 10 or 15 minutes during rush hour, it now runs, I think, once an hour. And then if you make that, you have to wait, as I said, for 25 to 40 minutes for a bus to get downtown that stops in Copley. So you're adding half an hour, it took me an hour and a half to get to work one day using the express bus that used to take me 35 minutes. after 40 minutes. So it's not surprising that you're not seeing the ridership bounce back because people are not willing to do that. And if they can work from home, they will. If they can drive, they will. And so that's what's happening. And I see that as a large problem. And I don't understand why we are not trying to encourage people taking public transportation and people going back downtown. I understand there's always resource concerns. And I totally support the idea of having an equitable bus system and making sure that people who have no other options and need the bus to get wherever they need to go should certainly have that service. But I don't see why it has to be an either or. The state just passed a millionaires tax where the money is supposed to go for public transportation. We have a climate crisis where we want to decrease the amount of carbon emissions. This just makes no sense to me whatsoever. And I also want to say, and I think that, Our elected representatives have also said this, that there are hundreds of units of housing that are going up along Washington Street in Newton, many of them affordable housing. The armory, I was on the citizens committee for that, and the city decided to buy that building. There's gonna be, I don't remember exactly how many, but something like 50, 60 units of affordable housing next door. There are gonna be 400 units of housing that are gonna be built very soon. And the north side of Newton, is not the wealthy side of Newton, put it that way. There's many low-income families that live within walking distance of that area. And they won't be able to walk. So I just want to ask you to reconsider. And I do want to ask you, I'd like an answer as to why are you destroying the Newton Express bus system? I still haven't really heard an answer to that.
[Unidentified]: So I would like an answer to that. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you for your comments. Oh, I have a little bit of an echo. So I'm going to turn it to Terry Alther. Terry, I'm going to unmute you.
[SPEAKER_28]: Thank you very much. I just want to say that I strongly echo the comments of my fellow Newton resident who just spoke as with the other elected officials from Newton to support more express bus services. While I fortunately do live near the 505, I will say during midday when there's no 505 service and when the commuter rail only goes one day, I will say back when the 553, 554 went downtown, that was extremely beneficial during midday when I had to do a downtown trip. Going off that, I do think that there's definitely concerns I have about the plan overall. I do think there's a very strong austerity mindset to it. As a result, there's very much a lot of communities are pitted against each other. Obviously, I think that Recent revision I think for the most part, I think was much more beneficial for certain communities including Newton, although I will say that some changes such as having the 52 be a weekday only route, and then having a 59 still do that deviation through Adam Street instead of just keeping the current alignment do baffle me a little bit and And I know especially my friends in Newton Center are disappointed to learn that the 60 will not be extended to Newton Center after all. I will say I do think that there's a lot of considerations that haven't been considered in this proposal. First of which is obviously the new projects to repair and improve I-90. So especially while that's going on, I think it's vital to ensure we have as many express buses as possible. that there's been people advocating to have HOV lanes precisely for that purpose on I-90, for the buses to easily get through and through traffic as well. I've ridden the 505 recently during rush hour traffic heading into Boston in the evening, and the fact that it was super crowded pretty much makes the case on its own, especially since most of the rush hour traffic is heading westbound. But yeah, I also strongly believe that with this new plan, I think it's vital to work with other transit agencies. While I'm pleased to know that the 53 will be an option to ride heading into Yeah, tending into that area of like Western wall fam, especially in market basket, which I, which I sometimes go to, I will say that I wish there's a way to ensure that with the 53 that we can do connections with the 1 and the 8 of Metro West regional transit agency, because sometimes I do have to head out. to westwards and especially in the morning on weekdays, that's extremely difficult because of the fact that the commuter rail trains in West Newton are only going into Boston and there's very few outbound trains that even stop at Boston if at all. I will also note that I do think that If there's a way to better coordinate this with officials, I think it's useful because I know there's certain comments that were made throughout this presentation that there are people who are unhappy with the changes, they should talk to their elected officials, which I think I definitely will do. I think that it'd be really useful because I think especially with the change on Adams Street for the 59, I think that if it's really that much traffic, I think it'd be very useful to at least have a bus route that goes from Newton Corner through Adams Street to maybe at the very least near that area where BJ's is at. Because I know there are a lot of people who shop in that area, whether it be Shaw's, BJ's, or Stop and Shop as well. Should definitely be considered and yeah, I hope that if there's if the issue is a funding issue, or if it's a shortage issue that this gets the MBTA make specific requests to the state legislature, because I think with the current trends going on, I think those requests will be made.
[SPEAKER_21]: All right, I think you, you kind of, I think you were finishing up, even though it cut out at the end. So, thank you for your comment. I will make a, I know there's a lot of people who still want to speak tonight. So I would urge everyone if you could keep your comments. Relatively brief, that would be helpful. So we can hear from as many people as possible. So, um, I have Daniel next and I'm going to unmute Daniel.
[SPEAKER_11]: Hi. Can you hear me?
[SPEAKER_21]: Yes, you're all set.
[SPEAKER_11]: Perfect. Um, thank you guys so much for everything you've been doing with the, with the buses and the changes and everything. I had two, well, one comment and one question. My first question was about after this is proposed to the board and then they give feedback and such, will there be any other rounds of feedback or opportunities for the public to give their input or is it just that is if approved, what is gonna be instated over the next several years? So I was wondering if that could be answered.
[SPEAKER_10]: Thank you, Daniel for your question this is a sort of similar question to the one we got from the Medford City Councilor earlier there. When we go to implement go through the phases of implementation, we will be looking at. the conditions that exist on the ground, how it's compared to what existed when we made this proposal, and if we need to make any modifications to the network as proposed based on those changes. Part of that will be folks submitting comments to us with their thoughts on implementation. We have an online feedback form open now that folks can submit comments to, to the implementation team. So we are continuously receiving feedback from folks and we'll continue to receive feedback from folks as we go through that implementation process. I can't make promises about any particular changes to the network, but I can say realistically we know that over a five-year implementation timeline, some circumstances will change over that period that have implications for what we ultimately implement. and what the network finally looks like at that year five mark. So we will continue to accept comments from folks and there'll be continuous communications about this process as it moves forward.
[SPEAKER_11]: Great, thank you. And then the other thing I wanted to bring up was kind of echo what partially what was mentioned earlier about the 83 bus specifically, that I live between Inman and Porter and that's a great bus going to Central, but I was also really happy to see that the bus was potentially going to be going to Kendall also. And I was wondering if there are ever any routes that like or that you guys would ever consider implementing something such that like the bus went from Central to Rindge and then Rindge to Kendall, then Kendall back to Rindge and kind of did an alternating thing. I know that could be confusing if we're the same number bus, but just an idea there, just because I have found it quite difficult to get to Kendall kind of from that. area between Porter and Inman Square, especially with the new proposal of the 85 that would come only every hour or so. So taking the 83 there just would result in about 15, 20 minutes of walking or waiting up to an hour for a bus. So just wanted to throw that out there as something else. But thank you guys for all of your input and stuff.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you for your suggestions as well, Daniel. I'm going to now turn to Katie P. I'm going to unmute you, Katie.
[SPEAKER_25]: Hi, yes, thank you. First, I wanted to say I appreciate the revisions that you made to the T-96 route. I currently live in Medford Hillside neighborhood, and I find that even with that revision to serve the Winthrop Street part of that route, our neighborhood has had a lot of service taken away from it. And there's a pretty gaping hole in the map in terms of Medford Hillside, Western Somerville, West Medford. And I think a big concern about this is that a lot of my neighbors do not have cars and because we've had previous multiple reliable bus service to get us specifically to Davis Square, and to Arlington Center, and to West Medford, and especially along Boston Avenue. I think there's a concern because when we were in the breakout rooms, the answer to a question about this was, oh, you can take the at which I appreciate you having reinstated however the 80s route is now incredibly long going all the way out to Burlington mall And that's the only route that's serving this entire neighborhood. And so that is a little troublesome when you're, I have a lot of neighbors who are senior citizens and live in the affordable housing, and walk, walking court. And that is the, the only bus that would be serving that neighborhood currently with the new route and, you know, I feel like that's Unfair access for them and for our entire neighborhood. So I would really hope that you would at least consider increasing the frequency of the at, because that's a really, really important route, incredibly important all my neighbors take it all the time. And I think the answer in the breakouts, I was saying, oh, we will just have to, once it's instated, then maybe it'll be increased based on ridership. But when it's only that infrequent, riders don't take it. That's, I think that's the issue is that if you have to wait 30 minutes for a bus that may or may not be late because it's coming all the way from Burlington, you might try to find some alternate route, which would be way more expensive, like taking an Uber or not. And so I think that's an unreliable way to try to possibly change that route. Perhaps you can consider just increasing that frequency.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you. Thank you, Katie. I appreciate your comments tonight. I'm going to go to Gregory Zelt. Gregory, you should be able to speak now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hello, can you guys hear me?
[SPEAKER_21]: Yes, we can.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so I brought this up during the breakout groups, but I know it was better to ask it during the larger meeting. There is like a change in GM as I guess, I feel like a lot of people know, maybe not everybody knows, but there's an expected change in GM in a couple of months for the MBTA. Does that affect anything about the Better Bus project? Or can we expect that the project will stay about the same regardless of who the GM is?
[SPEAKER_10]: I can respond to that. We do not anticipate that having an impact on this project. Cool. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you. I'm going to turn to Carl Speth, and I'm going to unmute you, Carl.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, can you hear me? I can. Thanks. How you doing? I'm back. I was in room breakout room one. I just got a few quick things to say. First off, thank you for removing Central Ave from the 108. That hill is indeed way too steep for the bus to go. Secondly, to follow up with those two talking about the express routes from Newton before, and I temporarily switched over to the Linn breakout room just to discuss that. There weren't very many people there, unfortunately. But it's not just the Newton routes that are being cannibalized, as it were, but the 426 and 450 are no longer going to be expressed either. Kind of wish we canvassed in Linn a little bit better about that. And I was thinking that we could maybe also kind of like the alternating idea with the 83, have the 426, 450 alternate during rush hours and have it at Wonderland and all other times as a suitable compromise. And thirdly, a little concern I expressed was about the T109 and then 113. Now, I don't want both routes to be diverted because there are some people who need those stops there, but Alfred Street is like a parking lot. So I really think that one of those two routes should be divert to go via Wellington or Wellington Circle and Assembly and then Sullivan. And then in the case of the T109, if that's chosen, on to Harvard. That's all I really got to say. But once again, thanks for fixing the 108.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you for your comments tonight. I appreciate the suggestions. Tianli Li, I'm going to unmute you.
[Unidentified]: Hi, can you hear me?
[SPEAKER_21]: Yes, we can. Okay.
[SPEAKER_23]: Thank you for holding this meeting and for allowing public comment. I wanted to speak about the reduction of service to West Cambridge in particular. First of all, I don't feel like very many people knew about this whole situation because when I found out about it, it was already very late. It was the end of summer, kind of September. And then when I brought it up to people in the neighborhood, particularly parents, parents of the high school students, it seemed like nobody knew about it. So that's one thing. Maybe because, you know, the kids who take the buses don't, you know, don't pay attention to this kind of thing. I don't really know. but it seemed like people were not aware. So the reduction in services, I wanted to talk about how it affects the CRLS students, the students in the high school, because they don't have school buses. We do rely on public transportation. transit for the kids to get to school. And at this point already, just from, you know, all the parents have reached out to me, I know that the service is already unreliable enough to the point that kids don't rely on the public bus to go to school anymore because they wait for the bus and then it doesn't show up and then they're late to school. And so then the next day they're like, mom, drive me or whatever. And so it becomes very, very hard to use it. And as it becomes even less frequent with the reductions that are coming up in the 78 in particular, I worry that people are just gonna you know, kind of drop it from their list of options. I think a couple of other people brought this up already, is that when you have a bus that has service that's running less than, you know, twice an hour, say, or, you know, something, there aren't buses that are coming to your neighborhood in any kind of regular, you know, every 15 minutes kind of way, then you can't really rely on it to get to school on time, or to get, you know, home on time, to get to your, you know, activity on time. And so it just doesn't even become an option in your brain anymore. Which is really really unfortunate because of course we want young people to take public transit, and also because Cambridge is really making a push to decrease car traffic. But the only way that we can do this is if we have good reliable frequent public transit. So, in particular, I was wondering if you know if MBTA would consider at least extending the peak hours to accommodate kind of students, instead of I know the 78 has been reduced to only having the peak to twice an hour is what they consider peak for four to seven. on weekdays, and maybe if that could be extended from three, you know, starting at three o'clock, so to accommodate the kids, and then go maybe till eight, so it accommodates their after school activities, that would be really helpful. It's only an hour or two, you know, extended on each side. I think that would make a really big difference to whether kids have it in their heads that they can use that service and still get to places on time. And then I just, And then I just wanted to, one specific thing I also wanted to ask about is that the MBTA used to run these kind of special routes in the morning from, for example, the 72, which is now the 75, would run a bus from Huron Village down Broadway so that it actually would go right by the high school. And apparently this service was cut sometime in the past few years, definitely not during COVID, it wasn't running. and is not running now. And so a lot of parents have wondered and tried to find out what happened to the special route that, you know, could help the kids get to school on time. Nobody seems to know what happened to it. Nobody has been able to contact anybody at MUTA to find out what happened to it and to ask if it could be reinstated because it would be really, really helpful. It doesn't have to, you know, be a frequent thing. It would just be one bus, you know, at the 801 that would run down there and get the kids to school on time. So I'm just wondering, I'm just hopeful that the MBTA can be open to such, you know, kind of specific situations that would really, really help a lot of people out, specifically our young people in Cambridge.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you so much for your comments and suggestions. I think. You know, we're taking, as Doug said, we're listening to comments tonight and through the feedback form as we move forward. I'm going to now. On you, Casey Connors, Casey, you should be able to speak.
[SPEAKER_16]: Thank you so much for doing the presentation. It's really helpful and I know very confusing. I have some comments on questions about Arlington but also on equity and I think they relate. Arlington has always had a problem with the 87 bus that it's coming every hour, but the large Arlington food bank, I think next week that serves like 700 people is moving to Broadway and that's the only bus. to come every hour to shelter or bench there, or even in Arlington Center, this is a huge problem. So many people are disabled, elderly. And the 87 bus also goes to Monotony Manor, which by that's the only one that is another very large lower income housing place. And how can, Hello?
[Unidentified]: Yes, yes, we can hear you.
[SPEAKER_16]: Sorry. How can we ensure, I know that there are churches that work with this lower income, large lower income housing area. So should we contact them to be able to help you? How can we help you know which areas are where the people do actually need bus service and are in such need? I'm not sure how your procedure is done, how you come up with those ideas. As someone else said, I think James Wilson, that Fresh Ponds also has Mass Hire, which is the unemployment and training center. And it's very difficult for elderly, for disabled people to get there now. So a bus there would be great. Also like, for instance, seniors, women and children, they ride buses, their patterns are completely different than than commuters and Things like safety are so important. Bus shelters and benches are so important. So how is this done and how can we help you on that? For instance, for Assembly Square, the number 90, usually in other areas, the developer is required to build the bus stop and shelter and benches. Is that not a possibility, could we ask? Or is that just not done in the whole MBA Center? So again, as I see it, when I'm just temporarily disabled riding the bus, people give up when they realize the bus is not coming every hour, they give up, they take Uber, or especially as you understand, seniors stay in, they don't go out. Lower income people do not go to the doctor, which they need to. They don't go out, which is really terrible for their health. They don't go and get their medicine because the transportation isn't working. And as I'm sure you know, there are so many poverty alleviation studies that show MITs, NYUs, good transportation is the most important ticket out of poverty. So how can we help you to make sure that these people that fall under this equity category know about the bus and you know about them? I was so impressed with rep Dan Ryan going and signing people up. What else can you suggest that we can help you and our communities to make sure you know what's not working? Because it's, to me, listening. It sounds like everyone here on this Zoom has a college education. And when I ride the bus, I don't think the times off hours, the buses I ride, almost nobody does. And I do chat. Um, thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: So, yes, so thank you for your very thoughtful comments tonight and suggestions. And I know that the T will continue to work with groups to, um. Assist the writers, um, and, um, I am though, conscious of time and the, a number of, uh. People who still want to make comments and ask questions. Um, so I will, we will take your suggestions and thank you for those comments. I'm going to unmute Eugene Benson and Eugene, you should be able to speak now.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_27]: I appreciate the presentations tonight and the opportunity to comment. I'm a member of the Arlington Redevelopment Board, which is both the planning board and the redevelopment authority. for Arlington, and I'm also an Arlington elected town meeting member representing Precinct 10. Precinct 10 is on both sides of Pleasant Street, Route 60, approximately the southern half of it in Arlington, as well as bordering Route 2 from approximately a little bit east of to Park Avenue. I guess I should start by saying that I am very disappointed that you are presenting this plan to the board on Thursday and not taking into account and making any adjustments based upon the public comments that you've received recently and that you are receiving tonight. I would ask you to tell the board that you've gotten a lot of public comments and you'd like some extra time to consider them and are ready to make a presentation for approval to the board. So first thing. Second, I'd like to thank Ms. Connors for raising some issues about Broadway in Arlington. which is one of our major corridors. And it is important that the bus routes along Broadway are sustained. We expect there will be more development happening along Broadway fairly recently. We also had a design competition for some redesign along Broadway. So it's essential that the buses along Broadway work. I do wanna be critical to some of the changes made for Arlington, because this proposal eliminates completely two bus routes in Arlington. The 79, which went from Arlington Heights along Mass Ave to Elwhaife, and the 84, which went from Arlington Heights along Route 2 to Elwhaife. In other words, you've eliminated two of the buses that went from Arlington to Elwhaife Station. I appreciate that you reinstated the 67 bus. It was essential that you do that. And it's almost a substitute for the 67 because you now have it going down Mass Ave and on to Elwife. However, it's not a great substitute because it misses the western half of Mass Ave where we have senior assisted living and plus there's now a 40B. proposal, all of which will not have access to Elwife because there's no longer a bus going from Arlington Heights to Elwife. Second, I'm very concerned about the lack of any one-seat ride from Pleasant Street. These are my constituents. It's the bus I've taken for 30 years, one-seat ride to Elwife. I was actually fairly concerned that the comment during the breakout, well, you can take the 54 and transfer at one end or the other, but the 54 only runs once an hour. It is really not realistic to ask somebody to take the 54 bus that runs once an hour to go a half mile and then to wait for another bus that only runs once every half hour. I think you need to find a way to reinstate a bus that goes down Pleasant Street and goes to Elwhaife. If you insist on having the 54 being that bus route, I'd suggest route the 54 so it goes along Route 2 as the 67 did to Elwhaife, then swings back down Elwhaife-Brooke Parkway, makes a right turn on Concord Avenue, goes into Belmont that way and then continues on the route. That would accomplish a couple of really important things. Number one, it would provide access to Elwhaife for a part of Arlington that's had access for 30 years on a one seat ride, which you're going to eliminate. And secondly, it would provide a one seat ride for people in Belmont to Elwhaife, and they currently don't have one. Thank you for allowing me to make those comments.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you for your suggestions and comments. I will note that we're approaching 9 o'clock and I know that our interpreters do need to stop. Then we have 3 more commenters with their hands raised. I would like to hit all 3 and so we can give everyone a chance to make comments, but would ask if possible to keep your remarks brief. So we can hear from everybody. So, we'll hear from rich Susan and Debbie tonight and then, and I will just urge people that if they have other comments to make, please submit it through the form and Amanda can share that again in the chat. So, rich, I'm going to unmute, you know.
[Unidentified]: Hi.
[MCM00001180_SPEAKER_07]: So I live in Medford, and I feel like there's a gaping hole with the 94 bus gone. I'm right on High Street, but I'm somewhere between Boston Ave and Winthrop. And that bus provided me with direct access to the Red Line so that I could get to Mass General. It also provided me with access to City Hall and the Senior Center. Medford Square also services a lot of there's a lot of senior housing in Medford Square. So, my concern is, how are those people going to be able to get to their doctor's appointments there are a lot of home health aides also service those seniors, and a lot of them take public transportation and not having that line. I think would greatly hinder their ability to, to get there. We also talk about the connections, you know, possibly I could make a connection, take the bus, the 95 and try to get the 80 bus, then that would take me to Davis. And then this is just a side thing too, but you know, we do have transfers. And the transfers, you can't use them on taking two buses and then the train right now if I take a bus, and I go to Davis, I can hop on the red line I get a transit. But how does that how's that all going to work especially since now we're going to have to make more more connections. And how do we get to City Hall? How do we get to the Senior Center? I mean, if we take the 95 bus to Medford Square, it still doesn't take you directly to City Hall or the Senior Center. You're going to have to make another connection. That's just, it's a lot. It's a lot for older people to do, especially when it's freezing out and there's, you know, you're out there in the cold and the ice. So how would that work? Thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you so much for your comments. I'm going to turn to Susan and then Debbie and then Doug, I'll let you wrap up for the evening. So, Susan, I'm going to unmute you now.
[SPEAKER_26]: Hi, thank you for having these forums and. I'm glad to be part of it. I am looking forward to the 54. I was pretty excited to see that posted last spring. I wasn't in the first information session that you held. I did review everything on your YouTube videos and went back and heard the previous presentations that you had and the chats. And I guess from the first submission of the route, it had been altered. And so my suggestions or the comments or things that are standing out to me and listening this evening is it seems as though there's, The same kind of commentary that I keep hearing, and it's like the one seat ride or longer rides on these buses, or longer. I guess shifts where it's going to be a 60 minute or even a 30 minute wait between buses is a really long time and a hardship for people. My suggestion is to try to connect these buses into currently existing hubs and make these kind of rides or some kind of connections shorter for people, so then the buses can be more frequent. I think to get to where we all want to be, which is using the transit system more regularly, we need these buses to be in place at least every 15 to 30 minutes. I think an hour is too long. to wait for a bus. And I just don't think, like another person had spoken earlier, I don't think that you're going to get the, I guess, the numbers on the bus that you're looking for when the buses are only going an hour. So I would recommend looking to see how you can shorten the route and connect the routes to other kind of make, you know, type of power stations, where people are kind of getting off and getting on fairly quickly on to something else, where they're, you know, continuing on a, you know, on in route. I think the the shorter and the quicker the service for people being able to get on is going to be key here to the success of people actually using and riding the transportation system.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you, Susan. I appreciate your comments. I will take Debbie and then there is 1 last person Patrick with their hand raised. So I think Doug will just take the last 2 comments and then you'll do your final remarks. So, Debbie, I'm going to unmute you. Please.
[MCM00001499_SPEAKER_04]: Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi, so my name is Debbie. I live in Somerville. I have two kids that take public transit. So we are on the bus a lot. So I am, you know, I'm grateful that the bus, the 89 was reinstated, but it's just, it feels so weird to be at this point where I'm thanking the MBTA for bringing back a service that was already necessary. So I agree with what a lot of folks have said, we have to have know reliable consistent local connections so I would hope that the MBTA really considers what everyone's saying about keeping connections and I agree with you know when the reliability is not there people kind of give up on using public transit and I know that everyone wants to be on public transit so We're behind you. We want this to work. So I really hope the MBTA really listens to all these comments. The frequency for me personally, like the 89 is a big connection for like within the city. So for me, it's important that my kids are on the bus safely. So the 89 at a much better frequency right now, I think it's at 30 minutes. We lost the 80 through Somerville. So I think having the 89 at, a higher frequency, and it already has a dedicated bus lane in Somerville, so it feels important that MBTA listens that the city's already made infrastructure changes to accommodate this, so the 89 really should be at a higher frequency. Thank you for your time.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you so much for your comments tonight, Debbie. And with the last comment of the night, I will turn to Patrick. Patrick, I'm going to unmute you now.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you very much. I promise I'll be brief and I will. My only comment is something I've mentioned before and it's something you can fix right now, which is that your communication about these high frequency routes is misleading in some cases because they show a higher level of service than you're actually planning. The best example I have of that is through West Roxbury where you show the 35 and the 36 being from 5am to 1am high frequency, when in fact they are not planned for that level of service, and I've since learned that there are other routes that show weekend service designated by the color on the map. where that's not actually planned in the schedule. Your presentation of these things should reflect those simple presentations you have on the map. And if the planned service doesn't reflect those dark blue, dark brown colors, then you should change them and make that more clear. Thank you.
[SPEAKER_21]: Thank you, Patrick. Doug, I will turn it over to you for next steps and where we go from here.
[SPEAKER_10]: Great. Thank you very much, everyone who attended this meeting. We really appreciate your engagement in this process, the time you took to attend this meeting, watch the presentations, ask questions, and submit comments to us. We really appreciate the effort you've put into this, and we all on the project team care very, very deeply about this and are really committed to creating a better bus network. I hope that you'll stay involved in this process as we move into implementation. If you don't already get emails about this project, you will be added to the project email address by virtue of the fact that you registered for this meeting. So you'll begin to receive emails about this project. But I encourage you to continue to check the project website as well in the future and to stay engaged and continue to help us create the best bus network that we possibly can. Thank you all very much and have a great night.