Salem & Beverly Parking Garages Underutilized

Hmmmm. Did the parking garages fill up on the day the Patriots had their victory celebration? How many more cars would have been parked on the city streets near the stations had the garages been smaller or nonexistent?

(Such a garage fillup might not happen again for this reason given that many people were left behind on the platforms because the trains were full.)

The Newburyport bus/park&ride lot is free and full, though the bus cost $14.50 for a seat pitched shorter than the length of my thighbones the last time I used it. Look at it late at night and see how much usage is for multi-day trips, most likely via Logan. Meanwhile, the T lots in Newburyport, Rowley, Bradford and Haverhill average maybe 50% full, where at least Haverhill filled regularly when the price was $2.

If somebody ever forces/funds the T to pursue service over pound-foolish cost cutting and patronage job preservation, they will look at this, get rid of the bottom-dollar parking contractors and make it into something that contributes to CR being part of a regional transportation system.

I find it worth pointing out that the one free parking lot along the Newburyport line (Ipswich) is always full by 7 am.

While $4/day for parking makes sense at rapid transit stations, at far-flung commuter rail stations there's really no reason it shouldn't be free.

I can say that when they upped lots to $4, Andover and Ballardvale saw utilization go way down. I think it's only in the last year that I've seen them start getting close to full on some days again.

I still don't understand why most of the CR lots even charge on weekends. At Andover for example, there's so few cars there I can't even imagine it's cost effective to send someone out to enforce payment.

The cynic in me (often brought out by MBTA antics) says that if they can keep the weekend trains down to no more than 3 cars full, they only need to assign two train-people. Really, I have no idea how they make decisions when losing money on every passenger and under more pressure to cut costs than to provide service.