Green Line riders will be forced to wait even longer for trains this summer. The frequency of service on the subway line will drop as the temperatures heat up and tourists pour in.
“That’s really disappointing,” said Amy Chou, 24, of Brookline, as she exited Copley Station into sunny Back Bay on Wednesday afternoon. “For a city that says it’s built on public transportation, it does not work half the time.”
The Green Line is among the most heavily used light rail systems in the country, traveling through downtown Boston and the Back Bay, and to popular destinations like Fenway Park. During the summer months, the total number of weekly trips on the Green Line will be reduced by 2 percent, according to the T.
At the board of directors meeting on Thursday, T general manager Phil Eng said “the schedule that is going to take place next week is exactly the train service that people are feeling today.”
An earlier posting about the service change identified the culprits for the cuts as a temporary decrease in available vehicles, and speed limit changes on the B and C branches. But after inquiries from the Globe, the MBTA clarified there will be no speed changes on any branches and that “trip time adjustments” were made because train cars will be briefly removed from service as the agency installs Green Line Train Protection System equipment on the vehicle fleet this summer.
Schedules on the B and C branches were adjusted to better reflect the actual trip times following an analysis that found trips on those branches “were encountering minor timing challenges related to street traffic, traffic signals, and other factors,” T spokesperson Lisa Battiston said.
More than five years ago, transit service was slashed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, with trains running on reduced schedules. From day one on the job, Eng has vowed to increase the reliability and frequency of service. Both ridership and service have since rebounded, but still lag behind pre-pandemic levels — a trend on par with public transit agencies nationwide.
Sean Keim, 21, a recent graduate of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, lives right by the Hynes Convention Center and primarily travels on the Green Line. Keim, who dances professionally, said he has gotten stuck on a disabled train on the Green Line for up to a half-hour, unable to go anywhere, more times than he can count.
“I definitely don’t think it’s back to where it used to be, which is sad, because Boston is known for its public transit. So this decision to slash some of the trains, I definitely don’t think is great for quality of life,” he said.
With its high number of surface-level stops, the Green Line is notoriously slower than the other subway lines across the system. Speed limits on the line vary by location, from 5 miles per hour around stations, crossings, and curved sections — and up to 40 miles per hour on open, straight stretches, according to the T.
Stops on the Green Line are fairly close together, so lower speeds are simply baked in. (Even runners have proven faster.)
And the extensive track repair work that wrapped up in December didn’t do much to alter that, according to an analysis from Transit Matters that was published in February. At the time, the Boston-based public transit advocacy group also found that increasing service as promised remained a major hurdle on the Green Line.
In February, the T board of directors approved a nearly $113 million contract for the California-based Piper Networks to install a safety system, first recommended by federal regulators 16 years ago following two serious Green Line crashes. The two-phase project is intended to prevent speeding, derailments, and train-to-train collisions. Audible and visual alarms to warn operators are being installed first and are expected to be in place by the end of this year.
Dozens of Green Line operators have been cited for speeding in recent years, according to T records, and excess speeds have historically been a factor in crashes.
Many of the trolleys on the Green Line are decades old and frequently break down, leading to the vast majority of its delays. In the past month, the average speed on the Green Line was 11.3 miles per hour — far slower than the other lines, according to Transit Matters, which factors in the time spent at stops.
Chris Friend, the treasurer of Transit Matters, called the impending service cuts “really disappointing.”
The Green Line “struggles to be competitive, and this just makes it worse,” he wrote on X, noting the T already removed peak service. “And now they don’t even have the vehicles to hit this far lower metric? Worrisome.”
Jasmine R., 23, who declined to give her last name because she works for a local government program and is not supposed to speak with the press, said trains running less often during the summer makes her worried for her mom, whose commute from Dorchester to East Boston is taxing and tires her out.
“It’s going to be a lot for her,” she said. “Realistically, it’s kind of annoying because we’ve had all these promises. ... I need my train to come when it has to, so it’s a little bit challenging, and I just hope for better.”
Meanwhile, service on the Orange Line will improve, partly thanks to better track conditions. And, for the first time in more than a decade, the line will have 17 trains in service, according to T spokesperson Joe Pesaturo.
State lawmakers are currently negotiating how much money they will give the cash-strapped agency, which faces a yawning budget deficit of roughly $700 million come July, to improve service and help close the gap.
Justin Holtzman, 43, a physician with a private practice who is also going to law school in the city, takes the Green Line at least three times a week usually late at night, when his classes end. While not thrilled about the service cuts, Holtzman said the system has overall been running more smoothly under Eng.
“We should have a long-term, sustainable plan with funding the T. Obviously, that has to be balanced with everything else that needs to be funded,” he said. “I guess I’m glad I’m not the one making those decisions.”
Shannon Larson can be reached at shannon.larson@globe.com. Follow her @shannonlarson98.