MBTA GM Hints At Parking Rate Changes For South Shore

The MBTA plans to institute changes for South Shore commuters that Braintree Mayor Joe Sullivan hopes will be "more thoughtful" than a parking policy adopted last week that hikes prices on many who park and ride from transit stations.

"It was never the intention to proceed without input from communities, and so we are going to be creating a plan for that stretch of community," said MBTA General Manager Luis Ramirez at the start of Monday's Fiscal and Management Control Board.

The T's parking policy unveiled last week would hike some parking rates, drop rates at less popular parking facilities, and introduce discounted weekend prices. The weekday rates at Braintree, Quincy Adams and Alewife would reach $10, up from $7, under the new policy that is estimated to raise $8.5 million.

Sullivan is a member of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation board but not part of the MBTA Control Board. Sullivan sat at the table with the control board on Monday next to Ramirez whom he said he met with earlier Monday.

"I don't think you should penalize the most popular usage. At some point you're going to literally drive people away, and that's not what we want," Sullivan told the News Service after Monday's meeting.

Ramirez did not specify changes for South Shore riders but he said there would be an announcement next week. In a brief interview after Monday's meeting, Ramirez affirmed that the announcement could involve the price of parking at Braintree and Quincy Adams.

The general manager told the News Service the T had not erred in developing a new parking policy, and he had recommended the control board choose a more moderate approach toward raising parking rates. Against the recommendations of Ramirez and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, the control board opted for the most aggressive changes to its parking rate structure.

The former House chairman of the Transportation Committee, Sullivan wields considerable clout over statewide transportation policy as mayor of Braintree, which is situated at the southern end of the Red Line and also includes commuter rail access.

Overhauls of the garages at Braintree and Quincy Adams have been scheduled to start this summer, according to a timeline from March. The T is also redeveloping the old Quincy Center garage and overhauling Wollaston Station in Quincy, while the area around North Quincy Station has been slated for development.

Commuters can travel to Boston on the commuter rail in about 15 minutes from Braintree, Sullivan noted, and he said the garage overhauls are welcomed, but he criticized hiking parking fees while people who use the garages will be dealing with the headaches of construction.

"While the garage is undergoing significant construction over the next two years, I don't think we should be talking about a 40 percent rate increase," Sullivan told the News Service.

In March, T officials said that a total of 400 replacement parking spaces would be made available next to Braintree and Quincy Adams during the construction, and no more than 300 parking spaces between the two garages would be made unavailable at any one time during the construction.

Before construction began, Quincy Adams had 2,513 spaces and Braintree had 1,321, according to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

The $3 rate hike at Quincy Adams, Braintree, and Alewife, in Cambridge, is more than the $2.25 for a standard Charlie Card subway ride, and the $10 rate -- scheduled to take effect Aug. 1 -- would be more than twice as expensive as a round-trip fare on the subway.

At other MBTA lots, the price of parking would go down, which is part of the T's effort to lure commuters to facilities with excess capacity. The cheapest parking rates will be $2 at stations including Dedham Corporate, Hingham Shipyard and Gloucester.

Sullivan said he has been in regular communication with officials from the T and South Shore communities, and demurred when asked about Alewife, which is not scheduled for a major reconstruction and would have the same parking rate under the current plan.

"I don't want to speak for Cambridge," Sullivan said.