(The following story by Noah Bierman appeared on the Boston Globe website on June 4.)
BOSTON — Commuters continued flocking to the MBTA at a record-setting pace in April, taking 5.5 percent more trips on public transit than they did a year ago, according to T officials.
The agency also said there was a 6.1 percent increase in ridership over the first four months of this year, compared with same period last year. The numbers, which are also reflected nationally, confirm the move from cars to public transit as average gasoline prices jump to nearly $4 per gallon in Boston.
“Why burn that gas?” Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, asked as he announced the figures in a press conference at South Station.
In April, the T counted an average of 1,337,000 trips on weekdays. That includes trips on the subway, trolley, and bus systems, as well as commuter rail, commuter boat, and services for disabled riders. The three subway lines – Red, Blue, and Orange – averaged more than half a million passenger trips per weekday during the month, the third time in the last year they have reached that level.
The latest ridership numbers are a bright spot following a tough week for the MBTA. Green Line operator Ter’rese Edmonds died in a rear-end crash last Wednesday during rush hour. She was operating a train on the Green Line’s D branch, between Waban and Woodland stations, and hit the rear of another train that had just begun to move after a red signal, officials said.
Grabauskas said he did not know whether Edmonds was talking or text-messaging on a cellphone in the moments leading up to the crash. But, as federal investigators try to answer that question, Grabauskas said, he gave employees a fresh warning about the practice. Grabauskas said the T gets complaints about drivers and operators using the phones.
“The MBTA has a very strict policy,” he said, adding that he fired an employee in January for using a cellphone.
Despite concern over the crash, officials remain confident that commuters will increasingly turn to public transit.
Grabauskas said the T will have “a difficult time during peak periods” accommodating all the new passengers because of limits on the number of buses, subway cars, and trolley cars owned by the financially struggling system. He said he hopes many of those who shift to transit will use the T for midday and weekend trips.
“We want to keep these riders,” said state Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen. “It’s not good for the region if people try the T and then go back to their cars.”
Marie Toloczko, 61, of Rockland was taking the Red Line from South Station to Braintree after jury duty yesterday, where her husband planned to pick her up.
“When he suggested driving me all the way in, I said that’s ridiculous, not with the price of gas,” Toloczko said.
Officials also unveiled a new $4 million set of jumbo boards that tell commuter rail and Amtrak passengers at North Station, South Station, and Back Bay when their trains are coming in and out.