Slice of the transit dream fractured by schedule changes
For 15 years, Barbara Fitzgerald has walked two blocks from her home to the North Wilmington train station, taken the train for about 40 minutes, then walked comfortably to her job as a legal secretary at a downtown law office.
This is just the kind of transit-oriented lifestyle that environmentalists, enemies of traffic congestion, and transit advocates dream about.
But this particular slice of the transit dream is over for Fitzgerald, or at least fractured.
The MBTA changed the schedule a couple of weeks ago so the train no longer stops at North Wilmington during morning rush hour. A train comes at 6:43 a.m. and another at 9:37 a.m. - but nothing in between.
She and fellow travelers - some of whom moved to the area because of convenient train service - have been writing to officials, but have not prevailed on anyone to reexamine the schedule, she said. North Wilmington is one of the few commuter rail stations with nearby free parking.
"Nobody's listening to us," she said. "We're stunned."
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo points out that the Wilmington station - where Fitzgerald's train now stops - is 1.7 miles away. Fitzgerald says the parking lot at the main Wilmington station fills up by 7 a.m., impossible for people with children or day-care issues. So she and eight of her train friends have developed their own imperfect commuting system. They gather at her house at 7:30, leave their cars in her lot, then carpool over to the Anderson/Woburn station, splitting the cost of parking for two cars. It adds 15 to 30 minutes to their commute, she said.
The Haverhill line is one of the worst-performing in recent months, with 36 percent of trains at least five minutes late in January and even worse service in November and December. The T and its private contractor, Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., have been trying to shake up the schedule to improve on-time performance.
They made about a dozen schedule changes to lines that go in and out of North Station on Feb. 16, mostly to avoid conflicts with other trains such as freight lines and Amtrak's Downeaster. The Haverhill train Fitzgerald was riding has been moved to the "Wildcat" route, which uses the Lowell line to get into Boston and stops at Wilmington Station on its way. Pesaturo said the changes have helped improve on-time performance on northern lines by 8 percent during the second half of February. MBTA figures show the Haverhill line has had some pretty strong on-time performances over the past two weeks.
Pesaturo said workers counted no more than 20 passengers at North Wilmington on the five occasions they monitored the station before the changed schedule (Fitzgerald counts 25 or 30). He said workers counted 60 passengers at the main Wilmington station on Fitzgerald's former train, the day after the stop was moved.
Fitzgerald and her gang have suffered through the late trains, just like everyone else, and she believes the T and its private operator could clean up the problem without leaving her station behind.
The MBTA promises the trackless trolleys are coming back soon, probably in the next few days.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the T has been using low-emission diesel buses on Routes 71 and 73 - which serve Watertown and Cambridge - while the city of Cambridge completes some sewer work along the route.
The work is being done outside of rush hour so that the T can still run mostly trackless trolley buses during the busiest runs, he said.
The third trackless trolley route, 72, has not been affected.
The Globe last month reported on a $15,000 contract with consultant Jiansheng Li that was awarded without competition and has spiraled to more than $1.5 million in compensation and reimbursements over the past eight years. Massport has said the contract has been worthwhile and credits Li with substantially building its port business.
Nonetheless, Massport said last week that it will entertain competitive bids for the service after Li's latest extension expires in June. Aloisi has written Massport to ask that it include an outsider on the selection committee, someone from the state Office of Housing and Economic Development, to restore public trust in the process, he said.
Massport spokeswoman Danny Levy said the agency would accept the recommendation.
