Silver Line (MBTA) - Criticism

Criticism

Detractors of Silver Line service insist that BRT is still a bus, not a high-speed transit line, and provides equivalent quality and speed to other buses. Community groups in the Roxbury and South End neighborhoods, along with the Sierra Club, have presented findings that support this argument, and maintain that a light-rail line would be both cheaper and more effective than BRT; furthermore, part of the tunnel required for this already exists., These groups sometimes refer to the Silver Line Phase I as the "#49 bus" (this being the bus line with an identical routing that the Silver Line replaced) and the "Silver Lie" (used because of allegations from advocacy groups that the MBTA reneged on a promise of real rapid transit). Furthermore, the necessity to link Roxbury and Logan is not well explicated in any MBTA document.

The Silver Line's SL1 route from the World Trade Center stop to the Ted Williams Tunnel is considered by critics to be unnecessarily convoluted. Despite the fact that the Silver Line's portal is less than 100 yards (91 m) from the eventual entry ramp to the Williams Tunnel, the line must cross D Street at grade and proceed to the Silver Line Way stop to change over from overhead electric to diesel. This requires a loop back towards downtown on several surface streets before it can enter the tunnel, adding several minutes to the ride. The inbound route makes a stop above ground at the entrance to the World Trade Center stop, proceeds to Silver Line Way, and then goes underground for a second stop at the World Trade Center. If the headway between buses is as close as seven minutes, it is faster for travelers in the rear bus to disembark at the above-ground WTC stop, walk down the stairs, and then board the bus that used to be in front of them than to remain on the bus they started on. For some time after the Big Dig ceiling collapse in 2006, the SL1 used a closer entrance ramp normally reserved for the Massachusetts State Police. However, use of this shortcut was stopped for safety reasons after the affected sections of roadway were reopened for Silver Line use.