The MBTA needs to purchase 200 to 600 electric buses and hire 740 additional drivers to meet the current demands of a Greater Boston population that grew 53% over the past 50 years while the region’s bus fleet decreased, a new report found.
According to the report, released Monday by LivableStreets Alliance and the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy, the MBTA’s operating fleet of 1,121 buses is smaller than it was in 1972, when the agency operated 1,200 buses.
The demand is there, the report says, but investments in the bus system often take a back seat to the subway and Commuter Rail, and infrequent, unreliable bus service pushes many commuters to drive, if they have the means to do so, putting more cars onto already congested Boston roads.
“While the regional economy expands, employment industries boom and population soars and shifts, the number of buses, bus facilities and level of service remains largely unchanged, and in some cases, decreased,” the report stated.
“In short, Greater Boston’s bus system has not kept pace with the region it serves and fails the residents who depend on it to thrive.”
To fix this, the report lays out a reasonably achievable” roadmap for how the region’s bus system can get back on track by 2030.
It suggests that the Legislature and Gov. Maura Healey’s administration work together to provide sufficient funding for the MBTA starting in 2023. Resulting legislation should include “active financing considerations” for bus service, which makes up a “major part” of the T’s operating budget.
In fiscal year 2023, 2,500 of the 5,641 total funded positions in the MBTA’s operating budget were for bus operations and maintenance, the report stated.
It puts the onus on the MBTA to address its bus operator shortage, which is resulting in lower service levels; convert its outdated diesel-powered buses to a larger electric fleet; and invest in modern storage and maintenance facilities that can support those “21st-century” vehicles.
The MBTA needs to hire roughly 300 additional bus drivers to meet current service needs — the agency said in September it had 350 vacancies — and another 440 operators over the next five years, to overhaul its entire bus network with more frequent service, the report stated.
The report also calls for 200 to 600 additional buses, and asks that communities rejigger streets and sidewalks to provide more spaces for buses and pedestrians, which would allow service to run more frequently.
These commitments should be prioritized in MBTA funding packages advanced through the state House and Senate between now and 2030, the report stated, “particularly if decarbonization and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals are to be met.”