MBTA's Reasoning For Closing Cedar Park Falls Flat With Riders

MELROSE, MA — "We do not want to reduce service."

That's how MBTA Deputy General Manager Jeff Gonneville started Tuesday night's meeting about reducing service.

Gonneville and other officials explained the proposed service cuts — cuts which would rob Melrose of a commuter rail station and two bus routes, cuts which a state senator called "draconian" — before residents unloaded in a more than two-hour virtual call.

It won't be clear until next week how much the backlash from elected officials and residents impacts the MBTA's plan to slash service. But attendees gave the MBTA's Fiscal and Management Control Board a lot to think about ahead of Monday's vote.

"I believe that these proposed cuts go way too far, are in fact premature and will inflict significant harm on our communities," an outspoken Sen. Jason Lewis said to begin public comment.

Much of the blowback was directed at the MBTA's aim to close the Cedar Park commuter rail station. There were several questions about how the MBTA would be saving money from closing the station, which is unstaffed and has a city-owned parking lot.

Mayor Paul Brodeur said the MBTA has tried to close the station before, hinting that the pandemic was being used as cover to finally pull the trigger.

"It is very difficult to understand how this would save any money," Brodeur said. "The train will still be running and it will still be staffed and the station itself is not staffed. The T has tried to eliminate service to this station before and using this crisis to effect the change that is not going to save money is disappointing."

Gonneville seemed to acknowledge there weren't significant savings directly tied to closing the station, but said there were cumulative savings to be had in eliminating the extra start-and-stop times across the system.

"It's the starting and stopping and the amount of time that takes broadly when you start thinking about all the closures across the system and looking at what that equates to for crew times and crew schedules," Gonneville said. "Obviously there is a labor savings that comes along with not needing as many train crews because of calculated savings across the entire system."

An MBTA spokesperson last month told Patch there were maintenance and weather-related savings, but he couldn't put a dollar amount to it.

Gonneville said station closures have been a hot topic throughout the series of public hearings since the MBTA announced plans to eliminate more than $130 million worth of service. He stressed the closures are just proposals for now and said the feedback would reach the control board, indicating Cedar Park's demise wasn't a done deal just yet.

Melrose's 131 and 136 bus routes are also on the chopping block. Residents spoke about the importance of those options, particularly post-pandemic.

Gonneville said the cuts are meant to be temporary, with service coming back as ridership does — but exactly how and when are complicated. Some who spoke were skeptical full service will ever resume, particularly at Cedar Park.

The cuts would place Melrose in a bind. The city has built much of its economic, environmental and housing plans around its proximity to public transit.

"Transit access is in fact the No. 1 reason people move to Melrose based on resident feedback during our Master Plan update," Brodeur said.

Some of those people spoke Tuesday night.

Matthew Schultz said he and his wife came here for the MBTA. He still doesn't have his driver's license.

"Eliminating [service]," he said, "I don't know what I'm going to do getting to work on a daily basis."