I'm surprised how severe the cuts to bus lines in Somerville could be. Without the Bus 80, I wouldn't be able to get from my Winter Hill apartment to the Whole Foods in Medford in the middle of a snowstorm or a freezing cold day, when I'll need that service the most. It's a long walk to Market Basket or Sherman Market from here.

It is misleading to say that Bus Route 85 would be eliminated on weekdays. Since it does not run on weekends or holidays, that action would eliminate the route entirely.

Good point, Merrill.

If anyone's interested in learning a bit more about why the T can't pay it's bills, Boston Magazine has some interesting articles, published last February. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/boston/is_the_mbta_safe_to_ride

Of interest are, "Why the MBTA is broke" (http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/why_the_mbta_is_broke/page1) and "How to fix the MBTA" (http://www.bostonmagazine.com/how_to_fix_the_mbta/index.html?&slide_jump=8)

Yikes, I would rather that the T raise the prices and offer bigger discounts to students and the elderly. They should also offer better deals for a monthly pass and start offering a yearly pass. If we want these public services, then we need to pay for them.

The scenario 2 price increases are in my opinion not unreasonable given there have been no fare increases for 4 years. I'm not familiar with the specific bus routes, but I do see a lot of nearly empty buses, which can't be efficient to run. The number of cuts does seem fairly draconian.

I think it was an error to tie T financing to the sales tax. It should be tied to the gasoline tax, and the gasoline tax increased; the money has to come from somewhere. Unfortunately the T can't do that without the governor.

Some of these cuts are particularly detrimental to Somerville. The #85 is a key line connecting Union Square to MIT and Kendall Square. As we seek to build the economic base here -- that link is important. And the #95, that's vital for the folks at Ten Hills and at Mystic to get to Sullivan Sq. Somerville has a significantly lower level of car ownership and that's facilitated by public transit. Especially in light of the Greenline delays, eliminating bus service is counter to the pedestrian oriented city we're building.

Gee why not make it a little harder for me to get home from work, The 90 bus, And lets charge her more to figure out how to get there, Thanks M.B.T.A.

if more people than ever are riding the T, why is it in such big financial trouble? also, what are people supposed to do who ride the routes to be eliminated? couldn't the T just have less frequent service on those lines? and for people on fixed incomes (elderly) dou
bling the fare seems unreasonable and may mean those people can't go places.

The links pasted above describe some of the reasons the T is in such financial trouble, and it's not really the MBTA's fault; the authority doesn't receive the financial support it needs from the state—because the T is meant to be a service, allowing for the efficient movement of people in New England's most important economic center. Boston is the 10th largest metro area in the country (ahead of San Francisco, Detroit, Seattle and San Diego, to name some others); it serves 175 of the 350-some-odd communities in Massachusetts, and 70 percent of the state's population. If the MBTA isn't perceived as vital to the economic vitality of Massachusetts, I don't know what is. Sorry for this rare outburst of opinion.

The problem is funding, plain and simple. Sadly I don't see our elected officials having the will or political power to find the source of revenue (eg new taxes) that the T needs.

It's amazing that these service cut proposals are all about the T ridership shouldering the burden of the inadequate "Forward Funding" budget scheme the T is still saddled with from the State legislature back in 2000. And saddled with Big Dig debt. They should be pursuing that the current State legislature revisit and fix the unding situation. (Several studies have been published on this predicament in the last couple of years.)

It's ridiculous to contemplate such massive reduction in service with a band-aid approach, at a time more people should be encouraged to use public transportation and not be cut off from it.

Right now, I can commute Medford Square to Harvard Square on a monthly bus pass. If the 96 is canceled, then I have to take the 94 to Davis then the Red Line two stops, meaning I'll need a combo pass instead, meaning not only a rate hike but a need to pay for a higher tier of service for me and the other folks filling the 96 up going to and coming from work... and the same applies to going to/from Porter for grocery shopping. Medford and Somerville need *more* T options, not fewer! The Big Dig blew it with throwing all that money at roads; no North-South rail connector, no Green Line Extension, just more crap for cars... how about putting a chunk of that towards the more responsible commuters?

This is horrifying. Eliminating service to some of the communities that need it most? I just put down a deposit for an apartment a few blocks from the 96. There are no alternative routes in the area. I'm mildly disabled following treatment for cancer and cannot walk the mile and a half from my new apartment to Davis. While I do have a car and commute to the suburbs, I chose to live where I like to live my life. With these changes, I might as well live out in Waltham and pay less in rent because I'm going to have to hop in my car anyway. Is Somerville and the Greater Boston area going to make parking easier since they are effectively forcing us to drive into the city?

Yikes! This is awful, and makes it even harder to connect East and West Somerville which are already not well-connected to one another by transit.

We've been quite regularly commuting from the Tufts area to my daughter's school in Winter Hill using the bus. The 89 is the route that serves this best and thank goodness it's not on the chopping block - we've got another 12.5 years of sending kids to this school ahead of us! But runners up #1 and #2 are the 80 and the 101, both on the chopping block. And the 80 is by far the best way to get to the high school, city hall, etc from our neighborhood. Oh, and to the Green Line, since we don't get *other* ways of connecting to the Green Line for an eternity. My husband used to commute regularly to work on the 80 too, a few years ago, and the service was unpredictable and infrequent enough as it was, even on workdays. Maybe if they fixed the service they'd find more riders to make it profitable? Instead, they'll just yank away MORE connectivity from Somervillians.

Somerville was built around streetcars. Then they replaced the streetcars with buses. Now, with unending green line delays in the background, they're saying they might take even the buses away. This is hard to take.

I heard that rumors cutting bus service in the Somerville Area & so fare hike. What's happening? People have to work, elderly people who lives in the area, & & going to bars late in night. When is going to effect? In the next couple of years Green Line all the way to Somerville. Find out anytime soon!

I'd much rather see the MBTA partially default on its unsustainable debt obligations instead of carrying out these service cuts. Let the hedge fund owners suffer, not working people in Somerville.

If airlines can periodically wipe out their debts through bankruptcy and continue operating, why can't the T?

Just posted this link to Facebook. It's a good discussion about the topic on the Jan. 5 "Radio Boston" program on WBUR. http://radioboston.wbur.org/2012/01/05/slow-ride-the-mbta-and-the-search-for-a-budget-fix

We're having a meeting about this Tuesday 1/10 at 6pm at 165 Broadway (2nd Floor) in Somerville. Come join, discuss what's going on and how we can move forward in light of these potential cuts. We can't just sit around and wait until the "hearing" on Feb 28th. http://www.facebook.com/events/167467446688614/