ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Nunu Tway talks about commuting by bus as she waits for one to arrive.
By THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — It was a cold wait for a train on the Central Square commuter rail platform Monday morning and Dexter McKenzie appreciated pulling MBTA.com up on his phone to check train delays.
With winter about halfway over, the Lynn resident and semi-regular commuter rail rider said the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and its rail contractor are doing a reasonably good job keeping riders informed about weather-driven delays.
“It’s been reliable,” McKenzie said.
Train on-time performance statistics provided by commuter contractor Keolis buttressed McKenzie’s assessment.
Newburyport/Rockport trains serving Lynn and Swampscott logged a 68 percent on-time rate last Thursday and 86 percent last Friday. On-time performance was even better on Saturday and Sunday.
“The majority of these delays were between five to 15 minutes and caused by long dwell times slow boarding, reduced speeds in poor weather and long dwell times from Bruins crowds. No trains on the Newburyport/Rockport lines were terminated or canceled,” Keolis representative Justin Thompson said.
Winter tooks its toll two years ago on the MBTA and commuter rail operations with Newburyport/Rockport train service tallying a 22.5 percent on-time performance in February 2015.
The poor reliability prompted MBTA reforms and vows by Gov. Charlie Baker to boost reliability. McKenzie works in Salem and splits his commute between driving and riding the rails. He has enough confidence in the trains to work late and knows he can grab a train to Lynn at night.
Lynn resident Jaime Amato shares the same degree of confidence in MBTA bus service. She commutes to work in Peabody and said on-time reliability problems from 2015 have largely been fixed.
“I think service has been better in the last couple of years,” Amato said.
Lynn resident Nunu Tway rates MBTA reliability as “fair.” She missed a Monday morning bus and had to wait an hour at the commuter rail garage bus stop for another bus.
The MBTA has a color-coded weather schedule posted on the commuter rail platform in addition to social media sites posting ridership information. Thompson said a number of reliability improvements have been initiated since 2015’s wintery onslaught.
“Service has improved since the blizzards of 2015 thanks to lessons learned and year-round planning,” he said.
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Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].