Jim Evers, president of the Carmen’s Union Local 589, which represents bus drivers, said the union is confident an agreement can be worked out with the governor and Phillip Eng, the new general manager of the T who starts Monday. When asked how the money would help solve the crisis and what is being done in the meantime, Karissa Hand, a spokeswoman for the Healey administration, deferred to the MBTA. Governor Maura Healey is asking the Legislature for $20 million to help address the MBTA’s hiring woes. The researchers attribute the decline to MBTA bus and subway service cuts that have significantly lengthened commutes. Research from TransitCenter found that from September 2021 to August 2022, the number of jobs accessible to Boston residents via public transit has been steadily declining, and access for Black and Hispanic residents slid the most.

A report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation last week said the T must hire 2,800 workers in the next 12 months for the system to be fully operational. The T’s bus driver shortage is part of a larger hiring problem facing the agency. Chicago Transit Authority declined to provide the number of bus drivers needed to restore service, but a spokesperson said the agency has about 86 percent of its budgeted bus driver positions filled. (New York and New Jersey agencies restored service in summer 2020.) Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority are well on their way, each with about 95 percent of the bus drivers needed to restore pre-pandemic service, according to spokespeople. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City, New Jersey Transit, and Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority have hired and retained enough drivers to restore pre-pandemic service. And they’re all doing something different than the T: They allow new drivers to start as full-time employees, giving them an opportunity to make higher wages immediately. But a Globe review of six large US transit agencies found the T’s peers have had more success digging themselves out of the crisis. And the issue has forced the agency to cut service repeatedly over the last year.įor its part, the T has said the shortage mirrors most transit agencies nationwide. The MBTA bus driver workforce is shrinking.

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