MBTA pondering service cuts and budget workarounds

With a $300 million to $600 million budget shortfall expected next year, MBTA officials on Monday began zeroing in on service cuts that would save as much as $255 million.  Image of not cited provenance care of Commonwealth Magazine.

– News covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

MBTA ridership and revenue cratering care of COVID-19
Image via barrons.com

The MBTA is pondering service cuts and budget workarounds.

“In a presentation to the Fiscal and Management Control Board (earlier this week, ed.), T officials indicated the service cuts are likely to fall most heavily on ferry routes, commuter rail lines, and some bus routes.”

Especially most likely to be cut is the largely tax dollar subsidized ferry service as compared to the significantly less subsidized and far more utilized bus and rail service.

Quincy’s ferry boat.
Image via the ITeam

Cuts are expected to hit come spring, with many to be long lasting to perhaps even permanent.  Additionally, the MBTA is considering the use of funds programmed for capital spending to help cover operating expenses.

In turn, one can only reasonably assume that about the only way that the lightly patronized Quincy ferry service to Boston and Winthrop will only continue if local tax dollar funding provided by Quincy and Winthrop is sufficient to cover the bulk of the nut as passenger revenues contributes little to the cost of providing harbor cruises for commuters and those looking to get out and about.

What all too often happens to local tax dollars
Image via cheatsheet.com

While current data are had to come by, previous data suggest that roughly 80% or more of cost of cruising Quincy residents is funded by local tax dollar subsidizes and/or with earmarked special MBTA funding for Quincy that could be allocated to other and far more coat-effective local applications. 

By contrast, roughly only half of the cost of providing bus and rail public transit is subsidized by tax dollars.

On the waterfront, she thought that she was a contender – whatever …
Image via the Patriot Ledger

In any event, given the number of ferry cruises from and back to Quincy has increased since these previous data were analyzed, the only reasonable assumption that commuter ridership is down given that many are working remotely given the COVID-19 pandemic, it is only reasonable to suspect that the level of tax dollars subsidizing Boston/Quincy/Winthrop ferry operations has increased even higher.

Quincy Quarry considered reaching out to Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch for comment given his also long ongoing chairmanship of the MBTA Advisory Board, but then figured why bother being ignored.

Source: T eyeing service cuts, budget workarounds

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