No. 59 a major bus route in Newton
The impact of the proposed cuts in MBTA service in Newton and surrounding communities go far beyond those heart-rending effects documented by riders of bus route 52 (“Riders stand up for the No. 52,’’ Globe West, Jan. 22).
As Alderman Ted Hess- Mahan previously stated, riders of the north-side express buses into Boston will be forced into their cars. Riders along the corridor served by bus route 59 will be deprived of access to a broad range of public and private services including, but not limited to, access to rail service into Boston. Three commuter rail stations in Needham and one in Newtonville will lose feeder bus service. The Green Line station in Newton Highlands, which provides access to Boston and Newton-Wellesley Hospital, will be similarly cut off. Bus riders will also lose access to Cambridge via Watertown Square.
Access to most major municipal service sites, including several that were built or are being built to take advantage of bus route 59, will be lost. The sites include Newton City Hall, Needham Town Hall, Newton Free Library, Needham’s library, Newton North High School, and Needham High School. Access by bus will be lost to Sudbury Farms and Roche Bros. in Needham, Star Market in Newtonville, and Whole Foods at Newton Four Corners.
This corridor grew in a mutually reinforcing process with the trolley lines that preceded the bus route. This was smart growth before the term existed. To preserve this beneficial linkage of transit and uses, the T should adopt a strategy of increased fares all around and the transfer of ferries to the Massachusetts Port Authority, or one using an increased gas tax to maintain the mass transit service that has enabled the region to grow.
