The T is seeing its finest ridership numbers because the pandemic, and its management is crediting elevated service for the enhance.
“I’m proud to say, last month, October of ’25, is our highest ridership across all of our systems since pre-COVID days,” Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority CEO and Basic Supervisor Phillip Eng stated on the authority’s November board assembly.
In October, weekday ridership averaged 938,000 throughout the entire MBTA’s modes, which embrace subway, bus, commuter rail, ferry, and paratransit service for individuals with disabilities.
Whereas ridership isn’t again to the degrees it reached earlier than the COVID shutdowns started — October 2019 noticed about 1.29 million riders on common each weekday — service has been steadily bettering again to pre-pandemic ranges.
Heavy rail service on the Pink, Orange, and Blue Traces specifically has improved considerably over the past yr, in response to information revealed by the MBTA, with the variety of scheduled weekday journeys up 55%, 50%, and 16% respectively from Spring 2024.
“The number of trips goes to the reliability of this system,” Eng stated. “That is going to bring people back. We’re seeing that little by little, every month.”
MBTA Board Chair Thomas McGee stated on the assembly that the service and ridership numbers are encouraging. “If you haven’t been on the lines, you’re willing to take a shot at it,” McGee stated, as a result of riders can belief trains will arrive usually and on-time.
Transit specialists who spoke with The Herald additionally stated the numbers have been optimistic.
“The MBTA’s investment in track upgrades is clearly paying off for Red and Orange Line riders,” Caitlin Allen-Connelly, TransitMatters govt director, famous. “The removal of key slow zones directly translates to better service and significantly higher ridership, setting a strong foundation for reliability throughout 2025.”
The elevated ridership “proves that when the MBTA commits to faster trains and increased service following the Track Improvement Plan, riders respond,” she added. “This model needs to be extended across the entire system.”
Allen-Connelly pointed to the Inexperienced Line as an space of additional enchancment, which had one p.c fewer common day by day journeys and a 12% decline in ridership in October 2025, in comparison with the identical time final yr.
The MBTA is working to enhance reliability and security on the Inexperienced Line, shutting down massive sections of the B, C, D, and E branches from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22 to carry out enhancements.
The T can be changing a picket electrical trough circa the Eighties, that’s unique to the tunnel, in addition to modernizing indicators, inspecting tunnels, brightening stations, and persevering with to work on the Inexperienced Line Prepare Safety System, which is supposed to stop head-on collisions between vehicles on the tracks.
The shutdowns and main enchancment implementations have been a signature of Eng’s time operating the T, in response to Transportation for Massachusetts Senior Coverage Director Pete Wilson.
“When you have someone at the T in charge who really knows how to make improvements in a timely fashion, you really see results,” Wilson stated.
Wilson defined that for the primary time ever, the MBTA launched a diversion schedule an entire yr upfront, which not solely allowed riders to plan accordingly, “it’s showing they have a plan.”
He believes the enhancements in service are driving individuals again to the T, “because I can actually count on the T taking me where I need to go.”
Whereas the company has been shifting in the correct course underneath present management, Wilson stated he’d prefer to see larger funding within the commuter rail traces. Electrifying the diesel trains and rising service might convey in additional riders.
Nonetheless, he stated he’s not sure that the MBTA will ever see ridership hit pre-pandemic ranges due to how commuting and journey patterns have modified in a post-pandemic world.
Charles Chieppo, a senior fellow on the Pioneer Institute who research and researches transit, agreed with Wilson. “The world is different,” he famous, “It’s encouraging to see the numbers increasing.”
Past ridership, Chieppo stated the bigger drawback with the T is rising operational prices. In response to a paper he authored this summer time, the MBTA is seeing a lot larger charges of value will increase in areas like bus operations in comparison with its counterparts in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York.
Chieppo applauded Eng’s tenure up to now, “he’s doing a great job,” however cautioned that if the company didn’t take care of these rising prices, it might spell hassle sooner or later, at a time when encouraging individuals to take transit “is so much more important than it ever been before.”
