LYNN — Sen. Brendan Crighton announced that the MBTA granted the city’s request to delay the MBTA’s closure of the Lynn Commuter Rail station.
The news came as state and city officials gathered on the Monroe Street entrance to the Lynn MBTA Commuter Rail station Friday afternoon for a press conference, in which Crighton announced that the station, scheduled to close Monday, July 25, will be delayed until the MBTA is ready to begin construction.
The dignitaries expressed frustration with the MBTA’s lack of viable options for commuters. Crighton called the eventual closure a “slap in the face” for riders, calling for better mitigation measures than telling riders to drive to the Swampscott station.
“To our riders, we announce that closure has been postponed, that on Monday you can continue to use this service. We appreciate the MBTA listening to our feedback on the impact it has on our riders, but we still have concerns about the mitigation when the station doesn’t work. Currently the options they’ve given us are either to catch a bus to one of their stations or to drive to Swampscott station to board one of their commuter rails,” Crighton said. “When they do arrive to Swampscott station, they can be expected to be charged a higher fare in Zone 3. This is a slap in the face to our riders, telling them that they can drive to Swampscott, if they can, if they have access to a car, to pay more for a less successful service.”
When Mayor Jared C. Nicholson approached the mic, he said that while he understood that construction would come with serious inconveniences, a lack of alternative modes of public transportation for commuters would be an “insult” to and a “reckless desertion” to the City of Lynn.
“Thousands of our residents ride the T service every day on their way to work, their doctors’ appointments, getting to school, they build their lives around it, and we understand better than anyone, this station needs to be redone. Just look around, and we know that this station is in desperate need of upgrades. Frankly, it’s embarrassing for us, for a commuter rail that’s in as poor shape as it is,” Nicholson said. “We understand that there will be major inconveniences during construction, that’s part of this, but absolutely stranding our riders without any alternative would in no way just be simply an inconvenience, it would be an insult and a reckless desertion of the City of Lynn if that’s what ends up happening.”
Nicholson added that the MBTA is capable of offering alternatives, such as a temporary platform. He said that if the MBTA does not offer any form of mitigation, it would be a serious blow to a community recovering from the pandemic.
“What is so frustrating about this situation is that the MBTA is clearly capable of offering those alternatives. They’re concerned about extending the timeline and the impact on their bill. But if you offer a serious transit service, I believe that you have to offer reasonable mitigation during large construction plans, and we have the budget for that. We want to help them work through any other hurdles that they have, but we need a commitment from them. A failure to offer any kind of mitigation could be shockingly ill-conceived, and it would seriously undercut the riders, who built their lives around this station, and a city that was hit hard during the pandemic,” Nicholson said. “Our frustration that you see here is not new. It’s been built over decades of disinvestment and miscommunity in our transit options.”
State Rep. Pete Capano said that he, as a state representative, wants to investigate the future of transportation. He said that the MBTA is the opposite of the future, and that the city should not consider this delayed closure a victory.
“The MBTA has been very frustrating to work with. As a newer rep, I came in with the expectations of excitement for electrification of the rail, a new ferry, and talk of what future transportation would be like. Working with the T, I found out that they have managed to diminish expectation, and that is what they do. If you want to talk about the future of transportation, they are the last people you want to talk to when you should be going to them for the future. If we think that this is a victory, we are fooling ourselves,” Capano said.
Capano referenced a fence blocking the entrance to the Lynn station platform on Friday despite the agreement the MBTA made with the city to keep it open for the time being. He said that working with the MBTA is extremely frustrating, and that he supports dissolving the MBTA completely.
“Half an hour ago, I got a call from the senator that they will be leaving the station open. I come here today and I see a fence. Where they were supposed to be working with us, they already made the decision to close it down. This is the type of thing we’ve been dealing with with the MBTA for a while,” Capano said. “There’s been a few suggestions made, one by the House Chair of Transportation, to do away with the MBTA, that maybe they’ve outlived their useful purpose and we need to think about a new transportation department, I am on board.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at [email protected].
