Around Town

MBTA Severely Cuts Service Monday Night & Tuesday

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The MBTA announced Monday that public transportation in and around Boston will be suspended starting Monday night and continue through Tuesday.All trolley, subway and commuter rail service will stop at 7 p.m. Monday so that snow and ice can be removed from tracks, reported Boston.com. Bus service available, but routes operating on narrow streets and hills may be operating on “snow routes.” Check the MBTA site for more information and updates – http://www.mbta.com/winter/

Government

Town Council Will Prod MBTA About Transportation Improvements

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The Town Council wants to make sure that the MBTA has not forgotten about the transportation problems and needs in Watertown. 

In May, transportation advocates and elected officials invited MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott to town. She came to tour the town and speak with residents about the problems with the 71 and 73 buses, as well as other services – such as the 70 and 57 buses. (Read about her visit here). She talked about ways to make improvements in the short and long term. Along with improvements to the heavily used routes to Harvard Square – the 71 and 73 buses – a group of elected officials, business owners and advocate groups requested a study of improvements to the 70/70A line that operates along Arsenal Street – an area expected to have multiple new large development projects.

Letters

LETTER: Resident Writes Watertown Needs New Public Transit

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Watertown was dealt a blow with the approval of the referendum to prevent the gas tax from changing with the consumer price index. We in Watertown will suffer as a result because public transit will suffer: the MBTA won’t have a reliable source of funding even to keep pace with inflation, just at the moment when we all need better T service more than ever. But we can do things as a community that will actually improve our transportation future. In Watertown, we experience daily that the MBTA is overstretched and underfunded, that traffic congestion is overwhelming, and infrastructure is outdated. Service on the T’s Watertown bus lines was never stellar, but it has deteriorated.

Transportation

MBTA Exploring Using the Watertown Yard to Help Add More Buses

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The MBTA will not be able to add more buses to crowded routes or add new routes until they add more buses – but before that can happen the buses need a place to be stored and serviced. During a meeting to discuss transportation on the Arsenal Street corridor last week, MBTA officials said the need places to store and service 80 buses to meet existing needs. The Watertown Yard, on Galen Street near Watertown Square, could be part of the solution. The facility used to be a center to service trolley cars when the Green Line’s A Line ended in Watertown. Now the area is only used as a bus stop and turn around at the end of routes such as the 57, and express buses to Boston.

Government

Study of 70 Bus Sought in Effort to Improve Transportation on Arsenal St.

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A study of what can be done to speed up buses on the 70 and 70A bus routes has been requested by a group interested in improving public transportation on the Arsenal Street Corridor and beyond. A the transportation summit held Wednesday, elected officials, town officials, developers and members of groups interested in transit in the area met with MBTA officials. The group brainstormed ways to improve the service, which even T officials agreed can be slow and crowded. The area is one of the hottest areas of development in the Boston area. Developers of more than one project on the street have promised to contribute to a shuttle system to serve the area, but all agreed the MBTA service must be improved too.

Government

See Highlights from the MBTA GM’s Visit to Watertown

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Beverley Scott, the general manager of the MBTA, got the full Watertown experience this week when she toured the town and spoke with residents and the Town Council. Residents had plenty to say – some complaints and some requests – for Scott. The head of the T rode the 71 bus into town. Then Town Councilor Aaron Dushku picked her up and along with State Rep. Jonathan Hecht and resident Joe Levendusky, they visited Arsenal Street. The group tried to get over to the other booming area – Pleasant Street – but traffic and time did not allow, Dushku said.

Police/Fire

Truck Driver Trapped by Live Wires After Knocking Down Poles

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A garbage truck driver was trapped after he knocked down poles, and had live electrical wires fall on his truck Wednesday morning. Around 10 a.m., a driver knocked down poles in the area of Templeton Parkway and Mt. Auburn Street. Firefighters responded and, according to scanner reports, put out a transformer fire. Traffic has been closed in Coolidge Square in East Watertown while the poles are being repaired and the area cleaned up.

Government

See What Concerns and Ideas Residents Have About the MBTA

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Crowded buses and new ways to pay bus fares came up as issues facing users of public transportation at the first Watertown Task Force on Public Transit meeting. Forty people came out to the meeting on May 1 at the Watertown Free Public Library, which was organized by Sustainable Watertown. Frequent MBTA bus riders run into over-crowded buses – to the point that buses cannot pick up passengers – and bunching of buses so they come one right after another, said Joe Levendusky, an East End resident, who moderated the first meeting. “The solutions that were most commonly suggested were a) more buses on the routes and  b) better real time management of the route,” Levendusky said. People would like to see easier access to the Charlie Cards.