COVID

Massachusetts residents like the idea of MBTA rider limits. Here’s why it’s not happening.

"You may get into a situation where you're bypassing some stops so regularly that the service is not being delivered equitably."

Passengers board an MBTA 120 bus on Meridian Street in East Boston. Lane Turner / The Boston Globe

By Nik DeCosta-Klipa

3 minutes to read

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As part of their efforts to promote social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, the MBTA is introducing new reduced “crowding thresholds” for the system’s buses and subways.

But that doesn’t mean riders will be prevented from boarding a packed bus or train.

During a press conference Wednesday, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said it wouldn’t be logistically “feasible” to enforce passenger limits, “particularly on the rail system.” He also suggested it would raise equity concerns when it comes to decisions around determining who “gets pulled off the bus or doesn’t get pulled off the bus.”

“Right now what we’re attempting to do is provide as much supply as possible and spread out the demand,” Poftak said, referring to the administration’s efforts to encourage employers to continue work-from-home policies and stagger worker start times, as Massachusetts begin to gradually lift restrictions on nonessential work.

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The general manager’s comments come after recent polls repeatedly showing that Massachusetts residents are wary of returning to the often-crowded transit system in the absence of any effective treatment for the highly contagious virus.

However, a MassInc Polling Group survey released Wednesday found that one of the most popular steps the MBTA could take would be to “limit passengers on trains, buses, and platforms to allow for social distancing.” According to the poll, such a limit would make 72 percent of residents very comfortable or somewhat comfortable riding public transit (the only measure that had more support was hands-free sanitizer dispensers).

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A woman walks on an empty Green Line platform at the Longwood MBTA Station in Brookline.

Some other metro transit agencies have imposed passenger limits for buses, in which drivers have the ability to bypass certain stops if their bus reaches a certain passenger capacity.

Poktak has previously pushed back against the concept of a hard cap. During the press conference Wednesday, he said the MBTA was “looking at” a policy similar to other cities that allows buses that have reached a certain capacity to bypass stops, even if it didn’t put potential equity concerns to rest.

“There’s some important operational considerations there, because you may get into a situation where you’re bypassing some stops so regularly that the service is not being delivered equitably,” he said. “That is part of an ongoing discussion right now.”

For now, the MBTA is taking a softer approach, which includes a requirement that riders wear a face covering (though drivers want the mandate more strictly enforced).

Poftak says the agency, which is currently providing about 60 percent of full service, is “exploring ways” to communicate with riders about when and where crowding may occur, in the hopes they decide to change the time or mode on which the travel. The MBTA recently began a limited pilot program allowing riders to use CharlieCards to take the commuter rail (where ridership has dropped to three percent) between Lynn and Boston, as opposed to the Blue Line, which has seen some crowding complaints.

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The MBTA has also worked to add service on subway lines or bus routes to address crowding concerns, though Poftak said workforce availability during the pandemic can be a “constraint.” According to a presentation last week, 25 percent of the agency’s bus operators were not available on a typical day earlier this month, primarily due to COVID-19-related leave.

Still, officials hope to use the new crowding thresholds — based on World Health Organization standards to allow three feet of distance between riders — to monitor where more service may be needed.

Previously, the MBTA considered a 40-foot bus with 58 passengers to be crowded. But under the new, coronavirus-era thresholds, the same bus with 20 people on it would be considered crowded, according to Poftak. Similar reduced capacity thresholds also cut the passenger loads that the T considers to be comfortable on the Green, Red, Orange, and Blue subway lines to between 40 percent and 49 percent of their normal peak.

New crowding thresholds.

Poftak said Wednesday that ridership on the MBTA ranges between 3 percent and 24 percent, depending on the mode. If ridership rebounded to near 50 percent, 9 percent of all weekdays trips would be over capacity under the new crowding thresholds — half of which would be on key bus routes. According to the presentation last week, it would take more than 200 additional bus trips to address.

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“We will track that,” Poftak said of the crowding thresholds Wednesday. “To the extent feasible, we will attempt to provide additional service where we can.”

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