‘Broken Promises, Broken Trains’: No rally, but plenty of complaints about the MBTA

BOSTON — It was billed as the ‘Broken Promises, Broken Trains’ rally -- and its purpose was to put a spotlight on issues that seem to overshadow the MBTA. But, at the eleventh hour, organizers inexplicably cancelled the event -- despite indications on social media that many planned to attend.

Instead, just a handful of demonstrators showed up. Matt Lyon was one of them.

“I think the amount of investment that we have put into it is not enough,” said Lyon. “Consistently, trains are late, trains are in disrepair, the platforms are filthy. It’s not up to the standards that should be expected of any transit system.”

A transit system that, this weekend, further aggravated riders by slowing trains on portions of each line to a 10-25 MPH crawl so that track inspections could be done.

Drew Bellows rides the T a couple of times a week -- and might do so even more if he could trust the system more.

“A lot of the complaints are reliability,” he said.

And Bellows worries that the T’s reputation may be turning people off to public transit -- at a time when they might be receptive to trying it.

“As we look at climate change, a lot of people are trying to drive a lot less in the city,” Bellows said. “It’s a huge missed opportunity.”

Giacomo Ferraro, 16, is a student at Somerville High School. He uses the Green Line Extension every morning.

“It’s two stops from Ball Square to Gilman Square,” Ferraro said. “They advertise 6 to 7 minutes and the train is usually 10-15 minutes. And you see all these people trying to get to work and you feel bad for them because they’re going to be late to work.”

“I’m a transit advocate, a transit enthusiast,” said Liam Beretsky-Jewell, a classmate of Ferraro’s

Unfortunately, lately, there hasn’t been much for Beretsky-Jewell to get enthusiastic over when it comes to the T.

“I’m incredibly frustrated with what’s been going down -- all the broken promises,” he said. B. “It just seems to keep on getting worse and worse and worse. I keep on saying this is a new low, it has to get better from here. But that just does not seem to be happening.”

Beretsky-Jewell is holding out hope that Governor Healey will support increasing the T’s operating budget.

“Boston needs the T to function, basically, and that’s not what’s happening,” he said.

What’s also not happening is a full rebound in passenger volume.

The MBTA reported that on an average day in January 2023, it served 701,000 customers across its many platforms. While the number riding the T has continued to increase since the early days of Covid, it remains more than 40 percent below the 1.2 million customers served in January 2020, a month before the first infection in Massachusetts.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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