The MBTA recently updated how it calculates platform accessibility, a performance metric in its Service Delivery Policy (SDP) which measures how often MBTA platforms are actually accessible to riders who rely on elevators. In this post, we show how new data sources available to the public enable a more standardized and streamlined calculation of platform accessibility, while also raising important questions about how accessibility is defined.

The newest MBTA System-Wide Passenger Survey results are now available. The MBTA’s rolling Rider Census collects data annually about who uses the transit system and how they choose to do so. This blog post delves into what the Rider Census is, how the data is collected, and how to use the new dashboard to gain better understanding about the rider behavior and demographics.

On an average weekday, the MBTA’s Regional Rail helps passengers make approximately 100,000 trips by running about 520 trains through 137 stations on 12 lines. For the first time since Spring 2018, the T has a comprehensive count of train-level and station-level weekday Regional Rail ridership on all 12 lines. The goal of this weekday station level count was to obtain a point-in-time data set that provides a deeper level of information about how ridership on the Regional Rail system has changed.

On December 19, 2024, the MBTA adopted a new version of its Service Delivery Policy (SDP) in an effort to update how the MBTA measures the quality of its transit service against agency objectives. In this post, we use the Fall 2023 service period as a case study, calculating how Fall 2023 service would be evaluated under the old policy (the 2021 SDP) compared to how it would be evaluated under the new policy (the 2024 SDP).

The MBTA is beginning to use a new metric, Excess Trip Time (ETT), to measure subway performance. ETT is a passenger-weighted metric that measures the amount of time that a passenger spends waiting for and riding public transit in excess of a baseline. In other words, ETT tries to answer the question - what is the passenger experience on transit?

A brief analysis was conducted to explore how biking behavior changed during an MBTA Red Line Diversion (Alewife-Kendall/MIT) from July 12-24, 2024. Data from permanent and temporary bike counters, the local bikeshare system-Bluebikes, and passenger counts on MBTA shuttles were used to explore rider behavior change.

Analysts at OPMI often have to perform similar data cleaning and analytic steps across various data pipelines in order to prepare the data for different projects. Instead of manually repeating these processes for every data pipeline and project, we have standardized the process using Python.

As part of the MBTA Rail Vision 2020 efforts to improve Commuter Rail service, schedules were adjusted to provide service on more regular, predictable schedules. OPMI took an in-depth look at how these schedule changes have impacted ridership on Commuter Rail services.

OPMI is happy to share the latest results of the MBTA System-Wide Passenger Survey. This is the most recent edition of data available from the rolling Rider Census model, containing pooled data from 2022 and 2023 survey efforts.

Our new Rider Demographics Interactive Tool aids in policy planning, helping to tailor services to better serve low-income and minority riders.