Tracking Transportation/ Transportation

Business leader decries T service cuts

Says agency should hire private bus operators

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THE HEAD of a Boston-based business group called the MBTA’s plan to scale back service because of a shortage of drivers “a step in the wrong direction” and urged the transit authority to take the necessary steps to maintain existing service levels, including hiring private bus companies to carry T passengers.

“If this requires temporary relief from the Pacheco law, Governor Baker and the Legislature should act swiftly,” said Rick Dimino, the president and CEO of A Better City.

Hiring private bus companies to provide service at the T would be very controversial. The so-called Pacheco law, named for the senator who proposed it, is a politically polarizing law that requires state officials to demonstrate that privatizing a public service would save money and provide an equal level of service.

The Legislature granted the T a three-year exemption from the Pacheco law in 2015 as part of emergency legislation to fix the transit authority, which had been forced to shut down amid a series of snowstorms. The Pacheco waiver sharply increased labor tension at the T, but the transit authority predicted privatization initiatives would ultimately save the agency about $400 million.

The waiver also forced concessions from the T’s largest union, the Carmen’s Union. Under the current contract with the union, the T is required to use union personnel to provide existing service levels, but can use private bus operators for any expansion of service. When portions of the subway system are shut down for repairs, for example, the T often uses private bus operators to provide replacement shuttle service.

The MBTA is currently providing 93.5 percent of pre-COVID service levels, but roughly 1 in 20 trips are being canceled because of a shortage of drivers. The T announced on Tuesday that, starting December 19, the T will be scaling back service to 90.5 percent of pre-COVID levels. Service is being reduced on 31 bus routes and on the trolley line running between Ashmont Station in Dorchester and Mattapan.

Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for the T, said the agency wants to restore service as quickly as possible and is moving aggressively to hire more drivers, offering to pay for commercial driver’s license testing and increasing wages for the period when drivers are being trained. He said the T is also considering sign-on and referral bonuses.

The T has even used a sister agency to help find potential job candidates. Using information supplied by fthe Registry of Motor Vehicles, T officials said the agency has messaged 30,000 drivers who already have their commercial driver’s licenses asking them to consider jobs at the T.

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Bruce Mohl

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About Bruce Mohl

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

About Bruce Mohl

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

Dimino said the T should be increasing service frequency, not reducing it, as the agency tries to entice riders back to the system. “There is sufficient funding at the MBTA to bring our vital mass transit systems back to pre-pandemic levels and assist the Commonwealth’s economic recovery. The entire region depends on frequent, reliable, affordable, and equitable public transit services,” Dimino said in a statement.

Ridership on the T is currently well below pre-COVID levels, with bus ridership the fastest to return at around 70 percent of pre-COVID levels. Subway ridership is in the 50 percent range.

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