Scant space at T lots

At 6:45 a.m., bleary eyed men and women struggle out of their cars with briefcases and bags, hurrying toward the train platform in Salem.

''It's terrible. You have to get here really early and if you're not here by 7:30 you can't get a space," said Cindy Nile, as she prepared to board the train to Boston.

A few years ago, Mary Lynn Wick decided she'd had enough of the stress that comes with searching for a parking space in the early morning hours. Now her husband drops her off at the Salem station, ensuring that she'll be at work on time and saving her the occasional $20 she had to spend to park in Boston when she couldn't find a space in Salem.

Her suggestion? ''Build a large parking lot," she said.

The parking quandary is not unusual, according to North Shore commuter rail veterans. With too few legal parking lots in communities with limited on-street parking, their advice is simple: If you want to catch a train in Salem, Beverly, Gloucester, Rockport, Ipswich, and Swampscott, be at the station before 7 a.m.

According to a 2003 MBTA report, commuter rail ridership will increase by 15 to 25 percent from now until 2025. With the increase, the MBTA is planning new parking facilities for Rockport, Beverly, and Salem, and is building a new parking lot at the Gloucester train station.

''Ideally, it would be nice to have the spaces and we're working toward that," said Dennis DiZoglio, assistant general manager for planning and real estate for the MBTA.

In a perfect world, the MBTA would have the $39 million necessary to build new parking garages right away in Beverly, Salem, and Rockport. But only a fraction of the funds has been allotted for the projects, said DiZoglio: $2.5 million has been committed to the Beverly and Salem projects, and $6 million in state and federal funds could be approved for the Rockport station by the end of the year.

Salem and Beverly are the busiest train stations on the 18-stop Rockport/Newburyport commuter line, carrying nearly 3,900 passengers each weekday. Around each station, cars clog side streets, and eagle-eyed commuters angle for spaces farther and farther from the train.

In Salem, the MBTA wants to partner with the state's Division of Capital Asset Management to build a $23 million, 1,000-car garage on the site of the existing commuter lot. In Beverly, the MBTA wants to partner with private developers to build a $10 million, 500-car garage about 100 yards from the Beverly depot. While talks have been ongoing, no definitive plans have been made for either station.

''I don't think parking garages are the most attractive things for towns, but in terms of commuting, it would be great," Wendy Anderson said as she walked toward her car several blocks from the Beverly station.

Most of the time, Anderson pays $3 to park in one of the 88 spaces in the converted junkyard that now serves as a municipal parking lot. But when the lot is full, she has to hunt along the streets for a legal space.

After several years of competing with other riders to get into the city's parking lot, Tim Dunham was able to secure a parking pass for one of the 200 spaces controlled by the Beverly Depot Restaurant. He pays more than $300 a year for a guaranteed space, but he's not complaining.

''If that thing [the city parking lot] is full, then people have to go to all kinds of extreme measures to park," said Dunham.

Bruce Canario, the Depot restaurant manager, said he now has 400 people on a waiting list and estimated that new applicants would have to wait four years for a parking space in his lot.

''It's very competitive," said Canario, who hears from people about their status on the list nearly every day.

''Getting a garage will be incredibly important," said Tina Cassidy, Beverly's planning director. Cassidy said that a garage would be in step with the changing demographics of the neighborhood, where clusters of condominiums have been built.

In Gloucester, some believe the new MBTA parking lot could help clean up a blighted section of the city. The $3.7 million, 100-car lot is being built behind the station on the site of the old Gorton's seafood warehouse and will open in the summer, said DiZoglio.

''Hopefully, when it's all over and done with it, it will be clean," said Patti Amaral, who lives a street away from the station and spent years picking up discarded trash that had been dumped near the line.

Frustrated North Shore commuters do have an option, according to DiZoglio and Lynn officials. The MBTA's commuter rail garage in Lynn has 965 spaces, but fewer than one-third are filled on weekdays.

Linda Kitch of Lynn, who takes the train from Lynn station to her library assistant's job in Cambridge, believes the Lynn location is ideal, but criticized the MBTA for its maintenance of the garage. For the last four years, said Kitch, the station has been plagued by broken elevators, a broken escalator, and a lack of cleanliness. The garage and station were revitalized less than two years ago.

Kitch recently brought a shovel to the station to clear a path for commuters.

Lynn state Senator Thomas McGee said the station was originally constructed to accommodate a Blue Line extension, and predicted the garage would be filled if the line was expanded from Wonderland to Lynn. DiZoglio estimated that the extension would cost at least $500 million. While the MBTA has been conducting an analysis of the proposed extension for a number of years, no funds have been committed to the project.

Steven Rosenberg can be reached at rosenberg@globe.com.