MBTA RIDERSHIP across all modes took a sharp tumble in January, reversing gains made slowly over the last 10 months.
MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak called the decline significant, and attributed it to a fairly typical holiday downturn in traffic and the Omicron COVID-19 surge. Poftak said he hoped the downturn would be short-lived, and noted there had been an uptick in traffic in recent days.
Bus ridership, which dipped as low as 40 percent of pre-pandemic levels, is now back to about 50 percent. Poftak said the bus system needs another 35,000 riders a day to get back to where it was in late November, at 65 to 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Poftak said subway ridership is currently about 40 percent of pre-pandemic levels, down from its earlier level of 50 percent. Poftak said the subway system has added about 30,000 riders but needs to recover about 70,000 riders to get back to where it was in late November.
Commuter rail ridership had clawed its way back to nearly 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels in December, but in recent weeks ridership has fallen to below 30 percent. Poftak said commuter rail is often the most sensitive to COVID.
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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.
“I am encouraged that ridership is already starting to rebound there,” Poftak said, noting that the commuter rail system has gained 8,000 riders per day in the last couple weeks.
Poftak said ridership had been running above forecast until the recent downturn.
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