The Newtonville Area Council hosted a meeting tonight at city hall with Rep. Kay Khan, MassDOT and the MBTA, primarily to discuss Commuter Rail service to the north side of the city. I wasn’t able to stay for very long, but for as long as I was there, everyone was in agreement — something quite unusual at City Hall! Everyone voiced hope for improved service, greater frequency, and accessible stations. Rep. Khan has been instrumental in efforts to construct accessible access for Auburndale station, with a $17M bond in the new budget. Hopefully other stations will follow. Will the state provide improved service to support transit-oriented development? Will DMUs ever run through Newton? Would there be sufficient ridership without related projects like West Station, the Grand Junction, Track 61, and the Riverside Spur? Can anyone who attended the full meeting provide a summary of what the state had to say?
The future of public transportation in Newtonville
by Adam Peller | Jul 1, 2014 | Auburndale, MBTA | 4 comments
Actually Adam as someone who follows municipal issues closely, you must have forgotten that early participants of these sorts of conversations often benefit from lots of consensus-building. It’s not until the conversations are well underway that you start hearing from folks who are shocked and upset that no one told them about this.
All that said, I look forward to hearing more about this too.
Adam, I regret that we did not get a chance to talk after Tuesday night’s meeting.
I stayed until the end and the issue that arose time and again was the demand for more service. There were residents and commuters in the room who have work or class schedules that differ from typical rush hour work schedules. An essential bus route, like Route 59 from Needham Junction through Newton Highlands, up Walnut Street through Newtonville to Watertown Square, for example, does not run in the evening, when many Newtonville residents (and future residents on Austin Street) would use it. The takeaway for me was that the MBTA, which is very much a 19th century institution, does not have the flexibility to provide additional service where and when it is needed without airtight assurances that the service provided will pay for itself. This suggest to me that we need to move public transportation into the 21st century and use the handheld technology available on our phones to make public transportation more convenient, affordable and efficient.
Ted, we wish we had public transit around here like there was in the late 19th century!
I commented more on Greg’s thread about Bridj. True, it would be great if the MBTA ops moved into the 21st century (and they’re making at least a few gains) but the fact is the entire metro region, and many of our transportation patterns to this day, are based around the 19th c. system you speak of.
The MBTA isn’t interested in routes that make money, because I don’t think there are any! Isn’t everything running at a subsidy?? It’s more a question of focusing on routes with lower subsidy, and the Newton bus routes are always on the chopping block.
It’s the fixed resources and relatively low cost of projects like the Indigo line where I think there is the most opportunity, and even here, I don’t think Newton could drive demand alone. That’s why I argue we need West Station and other connections along that line for other communities to make those kinds of projects happen, both to benefit Newton commuters, and help take cut-through traffic off our streets.
Hope there are more meetings on the topic. Glad to see that Rep. Khan is expressing interest in these things. I hope our city administration does, too.
My father used to work at the Newtonville Post Office on a shift that ended at 10:30 at night.
He could ride the Needham-Watertown route (currently Route 59) to work in the afternoon and get a ride back on a late night route. Does anyone else remember this late bus from Newtonville? How did it start and why was it terminated? Would it meet the needs of people going into Boston early in the evening for ball games, stage shows etc. if it were revived?
Alderman Brian Yates