'An insult': Worcester panel tells MBTA official city is unhappy with longer train rides
WORCESTER — The Worcester Redevelopment Authority on Thursday grilled an official with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority over the MBTA's controversial scheduling changes to Worcester's express train.
Keolis Commuter Services, the MBTA's commuter rail operator, unveiled scheduling changes that added stops to the Heart to Hub express train between Worcester and West Natick, adding to the trip time.
Four new stops have been added.
Previously, the 6:30 a.m. train from Worcester made one stop at Framingham before going directly to Lansdowne Station in Boston, arriving at 7:24 a.m. The new schedule’s additional stops will add as much as half an hour to the commute.
Angel Donahue-Rodriguez, assistant general manager for external affairs at the MBTA, said at the Worcester Redevelopment Authority meeting that the scheduling change allowed the MBTA to add additional peak trains to Worcester.
Donahue-Rodriguez said the peak frequency sped up from a train every hour to a train every 45 minutes.
"We get that sometimes it can be frustrating, but we do take a holistic approach to ensure that we're providing throughout the whole system equitably and fairly, and definitely on certain lines," Donahue-Rodriguez said.
City officials lobbied the MBTA and the state government to put a pause on the changes, but they went into effect at the start of October.
Donahue-Rodriguez said the MBTA has taken feedback from the city and its local delegation into consideration. The schedule will next be updated in spring.
In September, a spokesperson for the MBTA said the change was made in response to customer and stakeholder feedback that the services should be more in line with the pre-pandemic schedule.
Such a schedule included additional morning and afternoon peak service and shorter headways. The only way to accomplish those objectives and maintain midday hourly frequency was to change Heart to Hub into a zonal express train, according to the MBTA.
In addition, the spokesperson said 75% of riders on the line originate or terminate at Framingham.
Worcester Redevelopment Authority Chair Michael Angelini asked Donahue-Rodriguez what feedback from Worcester residents was taken into account when crafting the fall schedule. Donahue-Rodriguez said a rider survey found that riders from across the line wanted more frequency.
City officials have said the city was not told in advance that the additional stops would be added to the express line.
Angelini called the scheduling an "insult" to the people of Central Massachusetts.
"I think the problem here is that this was made without consultation with us. Without, to my knowledge, any consultation with anybody in the city," Angelini said. "At a time when we're trying to promote a greener economy, we want to promote people taking the train to Boston, taking an hour-and-a-half to get to Boston is unacceptable by any measure."
Angelini said he fears fewer people will take the train and the MBTA will come back in April to say that services will be reduced as a result.
Responding to Angelini's pondering, Donahue-Rodriguez denied any political motive and repeated the intention was to improve frequency in service throughout the line.
Donahue-Rodriguez acknowledged communication could have been better.
Redevelopment Authority board member Richard Burke asked if the change was of such a magnitude that MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng would have been conscious of what he was signing off on.
Donahue-Rodriguez said he did not know the answer.
Responding to a question from Redevelopment Authority board member Sherri Pitcher about Central Massachusetts representation on the MBTA leadership team, Donahue-Rodriguez said his understanding is that member lives in Shrewsbury.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester board members lash out over MBTA schedule changes
