SAUGUS — A Saugus bus route is on the chopping block after the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced plans last week to gut a number of services throughout the Commonwealth.
Citing low ridership and a decline in fare revenue in recent months, the organization’s proposed cuts include stopping commuter rail service on weekends and after 9 p.m. on weeknights, stopping subway and bus service at midnight, ceasing the run of all ferries, eliminating 25 out of 169 bus routes, and scaling back on even more transit options beginning next spring.
In Saugus, Town Manager Scott Crabtree said the route that runs from Oaklandvale to Haymarket Square, also known as route 428, has been marked for its low ridership and is currently suspended.
He noted that the route is not particularly popular with commuters and provides three trips into Boston and three trips out of Boston per day with no weekend or evening trips.
“It was a low ridership prior (to the pandemic),” he said. “There will certainly be a few riders who are affected, but I think this is something they’ve been looking at because of its low ridership.”
Under the MBTA’s current plans, 14 routes will likely be consolidated, five will be shortened, and 25 — including 428 — will be eliminated entirely.
Saugus MBTA Advisory Board member Michael Serino said this isn’t the first time the 428 route has faced cuts, however.
“It used to go all the way to the vocational school in Wakefield, and they cut it from there all the way down to the Main Street Fellsway corner two years ago,” Serino said. “You hate to see them lose a route, but if people aren’t riding it, I understand why that route was affected.”
He added that the MBTA’s ridership struggles have been widespread during the pandemic, with numbers dropping dramatically from 1.2 million riders per day to a mere 330,000.
“(The MBTA) is adjusting for a deficit or shortfall in their budget … and they’re making a reduction in service to adjust for that,” Crabtree said.
The organization is currently in the process of holding a series of 11 online public outreach forums that will run through Dec. 4 and are intended to give Massachusetts residents affected by the cuts a chance to voice their opinions and concerns.
A virtual meeting for residents on the North Shore will be held Nov. 24 at 6 p.m. Participants must pre-register online at the MBTA website.
The MBTA Fiscal Management Control Board has announced it will vote on any changes to its proposed plan on Dec. 7.
