That the Administration and this Council work with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to address long-standing issues with service reliability with the Union Square (D-line) branch of the Green Line.

WHEREAS: The Union Square Green Line Extension (GLX) station opened in March 2022, representing a major accomplishment of local, State and Federal government, and it has created a critical mass transit connection between Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston; and WHEREAS: Despite the enormous benefits of the GLX, public analyses of available data on service on the D-line between Lechmere and Union Square demonstrates that service has been unreliable and unpredictable; and WHEREAS: The MBTA does not provide public transit data from trips originating at Union Square, but data of trips running from Lechmere to Somerville on both the D and E branches shows high variance in the time between trips (“headways”), around 50% of trips “bunched" together on some days, according to the TransitMatters Dashboard (https://dashboard.transitmatters.org); and WHEREAS: People who rely on mass transit need predictable and reliable service, and especially for a newly built GLX terminus we should expect such service; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That this City Council encourages the Administration to work directly with Councilors and the MBTA to improve service reliability and to provide publicly accessible data on trips originating in Union Square.