|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
An MBTA equity analysis has found that South Coast Rail service disproportionately benefits residents who are non-minorities, while also delivering greater benefits to low-income populations.
The findings were based on the demographics of the South Coast, an area with fewer racial and ethnic minority residents and lower incomes compared to the rest of the MBTA service area. Although the project didn’t fully pass the equity analysis, the MBTA said it would maintain the long-awaited service because it provides other important benefits.
South Coast Rail restored passenger train service to the region for the first time in decades when the extension opened in March 2025. New commuter rail stops were added in New Bedford, Fall River, Middleborough, Taunton, and Freetown.
That triggered this analysis because, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, transit agencies receiving federal funds are required to analyze how major service changes affect racial and ethnic minority and low-income communities.
Analysts from the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization used census data to determine if the new train service would have “disparate impacts” for minority populations or put “disproportionate burdens” on people with low income. Combining that data with the number of hours of train service introduced, they came up with “equity ratios” to determine if the project “introduces inequity into the system,” following a formula the MBTA uses for these analyses.
While the extension provides train access to everyone in the new service area, the analysis found that it introduces a “disparate impact” on minority groups because there was a lower proportion of them in the new service area compared to the MBTA’s existing service area. The South Coast has a lower concentration of protected minority groups, which were defined as people who don’t identify as white and non-Hispanic/Latino.
In other words, South Coast Rail didn’t pass the equity analysis because the South Coast has a lower concentration of minority residents than the areas already served by the MBTA.
South Coast Rail did pass the other part of the equity analysis. Low-income households experienced a greater increase in service than those with higher incomes — so there was no “disproportionate burden” on low-income populations. For the purpose of this analysis, “low-income” was defined as any household with less than $82,000 in annual income, which is 80% of the median household income for the MBTA service area.
Under the Civil Rights Act, the MBTA can still implement a service change that disparately impacts protected minority groups as long as it has a “substantial legitimate justification” and can show there was no other way to reach that goal with less of a disparate impact.
In its response to the findings, the MBTA emphasized the decades of planning that went into the project, which brought commuter rail service to the last three major cities within 50 miles of Boston that still didn’t have it.
“Reconnecting these underserved communities to passenger rail is a key infrastructure investment for the Commonwealth and delivers a long-awaited increase in transit access for an area of the state that includes several environmental justice communities,” the MBTA wrote.
The project is spurring economic development as it helps people access housing and jobs, and it’s benefiting the environment by offering a greener alternative to driving, the agency continued.
Riders are taking 2,000 more trips each day on the MBTA’s Fall River/New Bedford line than they did before the expansion, when the route was the Middleborough/Lakeville line.
The MBTA is accepting comments on the analysis until June 1 at publicengagement@mbta.com.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org
