Public travel has experienced a drastic decrease since the pandemic, as people are working from home and are advised to avoid travel.
GBH and MassINC’s forum on Friday morning discussed that change, the impact of cuts in the transit system, and how the public transit system will recover after the pandemic.
The panelists included the transportation reporter for GBH News Bob Seay, a consultant at MassINC’s Transformative Transit-Oriented Development Program, André Leroux, the executive director at TransitMatters Jarred Johnson, Lynn Mayor Thomas M. McGee, and the chief innovation officer at Delaware Transit Corporation Veronica Vanterpool.
The panelists reviewed the shift in rush hour traffic since the pandemic and the possibility that even when the pandemic is over, many people will still choose to work from home whether it’s for safety reasons, or just because it has been made normal.
Trains have seen fewer riders within the last year, but are still relied on by many folks who are deemed essential and have irregular work hours.
McGee said that he believes that when we move out of the pandemic, there will be a major return to transit travel.
“The continued economic development on the North Shore, we’re looking at new coastal units that are less than a five-minute walk to the train in Lynn,” he said. “I really believe that we will be seeing a rebirth of people wanting to get out and see people, and transit is the way to go.”
He said he is excited to see the creation of the recently passed rapid transit system, which will put $200 million into electrification in the revisioning of the North Shore commuter rail system down to Rhode Island.
“Transit is the key for today and tomorrow,” McGee said, noting that he hopes that it will be affordable and dependable and create connections through communities.
Gov. Charlie Baker recently said that it doesn’t make sense to spend money on running empty trains. The panelists said that scaling back the system and making cuts would be the right move, but there are still people who depend on those systems. Even though there is less ridership, McGee said that there should be some type of ridership always made available.
The panelists agreed that preparations should be made within the next few months as people will begin to return to transit, given the vaccination rollout and the approaching warm weather.
Johnson said that “we don’t like the idea of just cutting out the service.”
With some weekend service shut down, he said if someone who is an essential worker or relies on transit to visit a sick relative who needs help, then low ridership shouldn’t mean just closing down completely on weekends.
According to a poll issued during the forum, 50 percent of people said their main mode of transportation has changed since the pandemic.
Vanterpool said that the expenses are a big part of the operation and that buses and public transport should continue to be heavily subsidized so they can continue to be affordable to run.
Leroux said that they should be focusing on keeping the people who are most dependable on transit and offering assistance. The idea of making buses free was brought up, but Vanterpool was not on board with that idea. Leroux, however, said that it would be doable in some places, given that the cost of making all of the buses free in Worcester is only about $3 million a year.
Another poll showed that 58 percent of people said that they would resume their original commuting patterns when the pandemic is over.
Seay said that they are concerned about people returning to work but not taking mass transit, rather taking their own cars, whether it’s because of COVID-19 or costs.
Factors such as low-income, day care, working hours, gas price and congestion will all have an impact on how much people drive.
“With all of these things, we need to make sure that we are providing enough transit days so that this is not becoming a burden,” said Johnson.
McGee said a network that creates fair tolling throughout the region, including all forms of transportation, would get a substantial amount of dollars to create a revenue source.
“We need to put dollars in to make the commute easier over time and create a broad range of mass transit options,” he said. “Don’t cut service. Keep the service. Keep it available and work to improve it so that people can start moving towards transit as the traffic comes back.”
The panelists agreed that the traffic and travel will return to a similar gridlock that was present more than a year ago, but the preparations going into that are imperative. The transit system is useful to residents all over and the reliability of it needs to endure, even when there is a low number of riders.