Newton’s commuter rail service has been reduced and station accessibility improvements for Auburndale, Newtonville, and West Newton have been removed from the State’s draft 2022-26 Transit Improvement Plan.
Without strong, reliable mass transit, housing developments along the Mass Pike in Newton, including Trio, Austin Street, the Armory, and Dunstan East, will generate increased traffic and drive up both greenhouse gas and particulate matter pollution.
This commuter rail project is long overdue. It was almost 20 years ago that then-Congressman Barney Frank secured $3 million in Federal funding for the Newton Commuter Rail Accessibility Project. The MBTA completed the design for all 3 stations in 2019. The State should not go back on its plan now.
The 2022-2026 Transit Improvement Plan will be voted on June 3, 2021. The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization is taking comments on the draft plan until then. Contact Matt Genova, TIP Manager, at [email protected] and let him know Newton needs commuter rail service to support its environmental and housing goals.
More information is available at www.ctps.org/tip.
Please elaborate on “Newton’s commuter rail service has been dropped”. To me your comment would imply that commuter rail service would be stopped altogether which I don’t believe is the case.
While I absolutely agree the stations should be upgraded and that service should be improved I’m not particularly surprised the stations have been dropped from near term funding.
Hopefully a real infrastructure plan comes out of Washington sometime soon, that may be what the state is planning on?
The MBTA is running a bus from all the commuter rail stations. And there are no stop times listed on the commuter rail schedule for Newton.
https://www.mbta.com/schedules/CR-Worcester/timetable
The rail bus provides reverse commute service. The train still provides peak direction service. Supposedly this is a trial run of clock face scheduling which Transit Matters has been advocating for years to improve efficiency of the system.
I don’t think that the MBTA really cares about Newton’s environmental and housing goals
Commuter rail is most definitely still running in Newton – I took a train from Newtonville to Worcester just a few days ago. The schedule isn’t what it was before the pandemic, especially in the off-peak direction, but it was on time and a pleasant trip.
I do hope that service frequency increases as we emerge from the worst of the pandemic. Thanks for posting the contact information to comment on the Transit Improvement Plan.
It’s a giant step in the wrong direction. Calling them accessibility improvements really doesn’t do it justice. These stations are inaccessible.
Eliminating off-peak service (the bus is a cruel joke) and postponing accessibility projects in the works for the last 20 years suggests the MBTA is dropping support for these stations. This all leads to more frequent service (and more ridership) for all other stops on the line and less frequent service and less ridership in Newton. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say Newton service will end if this keeps up.
The draft TIP certainly does not support transit-oriented development along the corridor, nor do they mitigate the mess MassDOT will create with the Beacon Yards project over the coming years. Totally irresponsible, but exactly what we’ve come to expect from the state for transportation planning.
Thank you Kyle. I stand corrected. Newton has peak hour service, but not the improved hourly service the rest of the line has.
The funds for renovating the three stations have been removed from the State’s draft Transit Improvement program for FFY 2022-2026.
Speaking as a private citizen, The BRMPO is the first step in developing the MBTA’s FY22-26 CIP. From my work with CIP plans – at the T and at previous jobs comment and emails that specifically on identify a project, by project number (P-number) are much more likely to be addressed.
(Work emails that say things like “project submittal” with an attachment and no message body get set aside for when I have the time to puzzle out which project, which submittal, and is this something I need to address or am I one of a dozen cc’d recipients)
From the FY21-25 CIP:
NEWTON COMMUTER RAIL STATIONS DESIGN – (P0170)
Learn more about MBTA capital projects and programs.
MassDOT Division: MBTA
Location: Newton
Program: MBTA | Commuter Rail Transformation
2021 Cost: $2,754,977
Total Cost: $20,639,934
This project was programmed by the MBTA within the MBTA | Commuter Rail Transformation CIP Program. It is located in Newton and has a total cost of $20,639,934.
(As always, this is a personal statement.)
Newton commuters have many options for commuting in and out of Boston that the other towns on that line don’t – local bus, express bus, and the green line. I lived in W. Newton for a very long time and took the bus and found it to be more convenient then the commuter rail as it ran much more frequently. Eliminating those stops would save time for riders down the line that already have a long ride and don’t have any other options for public transportation.
Thank you, Lucia Dolan, for starting this particular thread that brings awareness to yet another injustice by officials at the MBTA relating to the decades-old outmoded three Commuter Rail T stations in Newton. As you and I discussed last week upon your e-mail query to Rob Caruso, and to Jini Fairley (ADA/Section 504 Coordinator in Newton), I must add a few paragraphs as to accurate information and the facts that originate from initial ongoing advocacy the past two decades.
First, the MBTA is 30 years late on the U.S. Congressional deadline to upgrade/update rail cars, stations, and exterior platforms. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) signed into law in July 1990 is the most sweeping disability rights legislation in history in its intent and scope. Signed by President George H.W. Bush, the ADA is unambiguous of its mandate for extensive changes that improve the lives of people of all walks of life.
Second, the MBTA is daily in violation of the Title II provision of the ADA. Zero accessibility exists from Framingham to Boston Landing (Brighton) at the three Newton Commuter Rail T stations. Until 2007, no accessibility existed from Framingham to Copley Commuter Rail T stations. Then a large group of neighbors in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston advocated successfully to build the former Yawkey (now Landsdowne) Commuter Rail T stop. And five years ago the $350 million public project funded by the owner of New Balance created Boston Landing Commuter Rail T stop. Brighton in that neighborhood transformed because of that project. Kudos to the owner of New Balance for including a first-ever Commuter Rail T stop to the region!
Moreover, active advocacy that began by an elderly couple visiting their family in Auburndale in the summer of 2000 sought to hop the Commuter Rail to go to Boston. But the 20-foot high precarious staircases disallowed the couple to walk down to reach the crumbling platforms on the Eastbound side of the T station. As a result, State Representative Kay Kahn got involved with dozens of Newton residents — most from Auburndale — to rebuild the Commuter Rail T station. I got involved in 2002. And am still advocating the officials at the MBTA to do the right and legal thing.
Public meetings with residents and public hearings by the MBTA were held in Auburndale the next several years. U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, a resident of Auburndale, hauled home $3 million for the project. The Design Phase completed in 2004 and the $14 million funding completed, a date was set to break ground months prior to Governor Deval Patrick leaving office. But a peculiar situation occurred that halted that historic, rightful groundbreaking. Then the entire project got shelved in February 2017 by a supposed ‘advocacy’ group named Transit Matters. Their group never attended any of the pubic hearings by MBTA officials. So how did Transit Matters members stop the Auburndale Commuter Rail T station rebuild? Reasons abound and were brought attention to myself and Rob Caruso by certain Newton city officials. Rob and I served 12 years as Co-Chairs of the Newton Commission On Disability. We’re still members of the Commission, but no longer Co-Chairs.
Enter Judge Patrick King. He oversees the $350 million civil suit won by four persons with disabilities affiliated with the Boston Center for Independent Living, Inc., who in 2005 filed a class action suit to compel the MBTA to fulfill its legal obligations of the Federal decree of the ADA. The MBTA settled and have since 2006 reconstructed streetscape, bus stops, retrofitted buses and installed new lights at crosswalks and intersections across the Commonwealth. The suit is formally known as the BCIL/MBTA Settlement.
Judge King gives bi-annual (June and December) updates along with MBTA officials to inform the public on the progress of rail and subway and bus T stations and bus stops. Judge King’s reports are thorough and those events are the grand opportunity for the public to attend to ask any question as every high-level MBTA official attends those bi-annual evets at the Transportation Building in Boston. Despite the pandemic, Judge King has held the reports via Zoom virtual meetings. The next update by Judge King will be Wednesday, June 2, from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
In July 2019, a packed Druker Auditorium inside Newton Free Library, MBTA and MassDOT officials held a Green Line improvements public hearing. I spoke about the Commuter Rail conundrum and asked the officials ‘Where is the $14 million for the Auburndale Commuter T station?’ An MBTA official responded: “The fourteen million dollars is in the bank.” Rep. Kay Khan was in attendance, adding: “The figure is actually twenty million dollars.” So, we heard on record the accurate funding source is intact!
Judge King learned about Newton’s inaccessible Commuter Rail Station at his June 2019 report in Boston by myself He never knew those three T stations are inaccessible. He is not happy! And equally indignant as to why the Auburndale T station got shelved because at least one such station would be accessible by now. While a few other pertinent events factor into the inaccessible Commuter Rail Stations in Newton, I leave you with the above accurate information as I directly experienced. My ongoing active advocacy shall bring rightful results to Newton. Stay tuned.
The Auburndale design got shelved because the MBTA put forth a foolish and wasteful design which would have degraded operations along the entire line. It was an embarrassment, and the T finally admitted it. This information was well-known and was all over the press, as well as this blog. The MBTA was going to build an accessible platform on the other side, forcing trains to switch tracks. The proposal was a more expensive design as the track work came at a significant expense — and would pose operational challenges which would have resulted in less service for Newton. Accessible, obvious alternatives were presented by transit advocates which were much less expensive and would have saved money in the budget to build accessible facilities at more Newton stations, a win-win. The failure in our bureaucracy is that this process took so many years, as we can see, that it may never happen.
Accessibility is a legal requirement and long overdue at these stations. That doesn’t mean that any design meeting ADA guidelines is acceptable. Proper accessible designs require careful thought and review and should serve all users. The fear is that all this discord will lead to the worst outcome, since the quickest way to make these stations compliant is to close them. How does that serve people with disabilities?
@marnie: high level, two-platform stations in Newton would make it possible to run more trains, including both express and local, with faster boarding.
I would like to see some data:
What was the pre-covid daily ridership that boarded and de-boarded at Newton Commuter Rail stations by time of day?
What is that same number since 3/2020? Has it been rising in recent months?
What is the anticipate demand post covid?
@Claire, here is one set of pre-covid data from 2018. Newton’s stations aren’t the very highest numbers, but I think they are on par with many stations in Metrowest. Consider also the fact that the schedules and crowded trains generally did not favor Newton to start, also the potential to add ridership in Newton, especially along Washington Street.
It would be interesting to see current data and emerging post-covid trends, but if the traffic is any indication, people aren’t staying put in their homes anymore. Consider also what’s going to happen when they rip up the pike in Allston in a few years.
New and accessible Commuter Rail T stations in Auburndale, West Newton, and Newtonville will become reality. More citizens, stakeholders, and residents of Newton must begin to truly engage and involve themselves to ensure all people have options to mass-transportation. Though some residents may never hop the Commuter Rail or enter the subway, you’re all paying for these transportation services, after all.
The dialogue is healthy no matter the tenor as controversy breeds harmony. All the people who saw the MBTA plans at the public hearings — asking tough and probing questions relating to all manner of issues at the Auburndale Commuter Rail T station — know exactly the earnest years-long effort proved worthy. MBTA officials moved on and passed the original plans and prepared to break ground. Ask Representative Kay Khan. She ought to know as her 20 years direct involvement in ensuring at least one Commuter Rail T station in Newton became reality.
Full funding ($20 million) is “in the bank.” The Design Phase arrived in completion in 2014 (I inadvertently wrote 2004 in my initial post this morning). And the officials at the MBTA cannot and will not ignore their obligation to the Federal decree of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Certain individuals have and will say whatever they think. Yet facts are facts. Some of us harbor the ‘knowing’ that Newton’s three Commuter Rail T stations shall happen someday sooner than certain others recognize. If you’re not involved, you’re not informed.
Peace.