Residents demand more from broke MBTA during public transit forum in Lexington

Approximately 100 Lexington residents, town staff, and the interested public attended a forum on Monday afternoon to discuss public transportation woes with officials from the MBTA, its advisory board, and Mass DOT.

The event, named “Beyond the Core,” was hosted by TransitMatters, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that advocates for better public transportation across the state, and the Town of Lexington Transportation Services.

Susan Barrett, Lexington’s transportation manager, said the town hosted this event because it has steadily lost a lot of public transportation over the past 50 years. And like many other Greater Boston municipalities, Lexington is eager to see a solution to the MBTA’s funding crisis.

“The MBTA is going broke,” Brian Kane, executive director of the MBTA’s advisory board, an independent group that represents Massachusetts cities and towns that help fund the T, said.

For years, the agency’s expenses have outpaced its revenues. And that gap has only worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought on years of low ridership. MBTA officials said they expect a shortfall of nearly $700 million in fiscal year 2026, which starts July 1, and could run out of cash in the first quarter without additional state aid or budget cuts, NBC Boston reported.

“I’m in the trenches hoping they can open on July 2,” Kane said. 

While the pandemic surely hurt ridership and consequently, the MBTA’s revenues, the agency has been cutting back on rides in Lexington for decades, Barrett said. 

In the 1970s, the town had four MBTA bus routes and a train stop in Lexington Center. 

At that time, even though there was more public transportation and fewer people living in Lexington, residents wanted more. And so, Lexpress was born in 1979. Lexpress had four buses that did eight local routes. They operated Monday through Saturday to fill the gaps between the four MBTA bus routes. 

Today, the town has what Barrett calls “between one and two routes.” The 62 bus and the 76 bus run through Lexington, but they only operate at peak rush hour times, Monday through Friday. One combined 62/76 bus route travels through Lexington during the middle of the day and late at night, on Monday through Friday, and all day on Saturday. Due to lacking funds, Lexpress’ services have likewise been reduced. 

“There have been so many transit studies, groups, coalitions — all of that time and energy is spent because people want to find solutions, to fill all of these transportation gaps that exist,” Barrett told LexObserver. “There just has to be a better way.” 

In addition to persistent budget issues and low ridership, the MBTA is also struggling to restore full service on subway and bus systems. 

One Lexington resident said they’re concerned the town will need public transportation to run more frequently once its new MBTA Communities Act-compliant condos are occupied. Lexington, which is one of 177 municipalities that must comply with the new multi-family zoning requirements, has proposals for approximately 1,000 condos and apartments in accordance with the new state law.

“We’ve done everything that the state wants us to do with housing, we’ve been a leader on that issue,” Barrett said. “We really want the state to show up with transportation.”

Asked if the MBTA has a plan to address that looming increase in demand for public transportation, Lynsey Heffernan, chief of policy and strategic planning for the MBTA, said, “that is a dynamicism [sic] that we don’t have built,” during the forum.  

“The T would love to provide more service but they have financial constraints and right now there is this whole financial crisis,” Barrett said. “We all have to do whatever we can to address that.” 

Other attendees voiced concerns about the role the MBTA plays in helping Massachusetts reach its climate goals. In July, the state received three federal grant awards from Washington to help fund zero and low-emission buses. Included in those grants, the MBTA received $40 million to replace the diesel-fueled buses at the Quincy Bus Maintenance Facility with electric ones. That’s a small step in meeting the authority’s ambitious goal of operating a zero-emission fleet by 2040. 

Ultimately, Rep. Michelle Ciccolo said, going all-electric is not how Massachusetts will achieve its goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 — getting people out of their vehicles and onto public transportation will do that. 

But residents won’t ditch their cars if they continue to be deterred by the T. Multiple attendees said they’re worried that the culture of disliking the T in Massachusetts is something the MBTA should address so using public transportation is more popular. One resident asked the panel if they would consider organizing a public awareness campaign “to make riding the T cool.”  

In response, Heffernan said that improving service is how she believes ridership will increase. 

“I’m not sure the gimmick is more important than completing our core mission really well,” she said. 

Ensuring all MBTA services show up on time, adding to the MBTA’s workforce and paying workers well, and regularly maintaining and replacing rails, buses, and train cars are all ways the MBTA is improving its service, Heffernan said. 

Come Dec. 21, the MBTA should be done fixing its many slow zones — sections of track where trains are required to run at a slower speed than normal due to aging infrastructure — Heffernan said. Slow zones have long been an issue across the MBTA’s subway system and have contributed to its reliability issues. 

One attendee brought up how the cost of riding is another large barrier for many people. A one-way ticket costs $2.40 on the subway, $1.70 on the bus, between $2.40 and $13.25 on the commuter rail depending on the distance, and between $2.40 and $9.75 on the ferry depending on distance. That means it could cost over $130 to commute to and from work in Boston for one week. 

The MBTA is aware of that inaccessibility, especially with the commuter rail which, Heffernan said, largely serves white-collar communities now. To help make riding more accessible, the authority began offering reduced fares to low-income residents who are enrolled in certain state assistance programs in September.

Heffernan urged attendees to engage with state senators and representatives, such as Ciccolo, so they can know what riders want and how to prioritize action items. 

“It’s wildly unpopular to talk about taxes and fees for transportation and that needs to change,” Ciccolo said. “If we want a different quality of service, we have to ask for it.”