U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch blasted the MBTA for ongoing service cuts, including the elimination of some bus routes that became effective Sunday, saying the coronavirus relief package is not delivering $1 billion to the agency only to see rollbacks.
“This is taxpayer money,” Lynch says of the $1 billion headed to the T. “So, we take money from the taxpayer and then the MBTA cuts service? That doesn’t work for me.”
Lynch called the MBTA cuts an “anathema” to the will of Congress.
“We didn’t give them $1 billion to lay people off,” he said, noting “part of the deal is that you provide the services.”
Lynch made his initial remarks in Quincy on Monday morning with Mayor Thomas Koch and Massachusetts House Speaker Ronald Mariano. He doubled-down at a later appearance in Boston with Mayor Martin Walsh as he took a victory lap to discuss the impact of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that includes $8 billion in direct aid to Massachusetts.
The coronavirus relief package was passed by Congress and signed by President Biden last week.
Mariano said the MBTA service cuts were planned before there was any certainty the congressional bailout would pass.
“Some of these cuts are going to have to come back,” Mariano said, though he hedged his comments around ridership at the agency.
Lynch hinted on Monday that the T’s failure to walk back cuts and layoffs could lead to consequences in future federal transportation spending bills.
Rep. Mike Connolly, D-Cambridge, criticized the cuts that he said “in the scheme of things would save a very modest amount of money.”
T officials claim the agency will save about $21 million this fiscal year through the package of service cuts that includes suspending 20 bus routes, eliminating weekend commuter rail service on seven lines, slashing the Hingham and Hull ferry schedules and reducing trip frequency on nonessential buses and the Red, Orange and Green lines by 20%. Frequency of the Blue Line and other bus lines will drop 5%, according to the split December decision by the Fiscal Management Control Board.
“This really defeats the purpose of the American Recovery Plan, which is to get people back to work,” Connolly said. “They’re sending us all this money and Gov. Baker’s decision is to lay people off and actually make it harder for people to get to work.”
Connolly said he will be looking to the state budget, which traditionally reaches the House floor for debate in April, “as an opportunity to require the Baker administration to maintain the levels of service we had going into the pandemic.”
Protesters on Sunday turned out to decry the suspension of the 55 bus route connecting the Fenway with Copley Square — cuts that took effect this week. Keolis, the company that runs the commuter rail, recently laid off 40 conductors — 9% of its staff.
In an interview with WBUR on Monday, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak reiterated that the cuts are meant to be temporary and called the savings “a meaningful amount of money” for a system that is still suffering from depressed ridership and an uncertain future.
The agency is predicting a budget deficit upward of $1.8 billion over the next few fiscal years as it rebuilds ridership that plummeted amid the pandemic.
Lynch also said Congress will “take another look” at unemployment over the summer. The rescue plan extended benefits through September.