MBTA Makes Fairmount Line's Eight Extra Daily Trips Permanent Service

BOSTON -- May 10, 2022, MBTA permanently expands Fairmount Commuter Rail Line service after two-year pilot. MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak announced at a Saturday outdoor event that eight additional weekday trips on the nine-mile Fairmount Line, piloted since 2020, will become permanent, delivering service every 45 minutes throughout the day. Poftak cited roughly 70 percent recovery of pre-COVID ridership as evidence of demand, and disclosed as last-minute news that bikes will be permitted on all Fairmount Line trains all day beginning May 23. MassDOT Secretary Jamie Tesler said permanent changes also include CharlieCard fare payment and free transfers to the Red Line, Silver Line, and local bus, and noted the MBTA set a capital investment record of $1.92 billion last year. Mayor Michelle Wu called the line "fundamental" to connecting residents to jobs, health care, and schools. Fairmount Indigo Transit Coalition Co-Chair Marilyn Foreman, whose coalition has organized for two decades, said: "It took 20 years but ain't no stopping us now", and immediately called for service to advance from 45-minute to 15-minute headways.