Boston’s population is booming but bus fleet shrinking, says study

Bryan Lambert
·2 min read
1

Boston has never been bigger. But the city’s fleet of buses has not kept pace with its booming population, according to a new study.

Although Greater Boston’s population has grown 53 percent over the past 50 years, there are currently fewer buses on the roads than there were in 1972, according to a new study by the LiveableStreets Alliance and the Institute for Transportation and Developmental Policy.

According to the report, in order to get Boston’s fleet of 1,121 buses up to pre-pandemic levels, it would take up to two years of hiring and training- and that’s if the MBTA doubles its current rate of hiring.

The MBTA’s bus service facilities are seemingly also stuck in the past. According to LiveableStreets Alliance, the newest of Boston’s nine bus garages is 40 years old.

As the need for buses surges in transit-dependent areas like Revere, Chelsea and Everett, Boston has “failed” to meet the demand.

“The region is crippled by having too few buses, too few and outdated facilities, slow and unreliable service, and underlying it all, a broken budget,” says the study. “Only a comprehensive, coordinated, and well-resourced effort to transform the bus system will bring it up to speed to meet the region’s current and future needs.”

The MBTA would need to hire 740 drivers to meet the current needs of Boston, says the report.

The report lays out a prospective plan to get the MBTA’s public transport system back on track by the end of the decade. Among the steps outlined are:

1. Provide stable and sufficient funding for the MBTA.

2. Allow for regional funding of MBTA and other transportation projects.

3. Reset the Capital and Operating Budgets; Delete the “Big Dig” Debt.

4. Provide more matching funding; apply for more federal grants.

5. Protect bus priority and prevent vehicle incursions into bus-only spaces.

The full report can be read below:

Keeping Pace Report by Boston 25 Desk on Scribd

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