Greenbush Line takes riders from Hingham Ferry, eases congestion
Michael Del Rosso
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Pull up to the Hingham commuter boat parking lot at 8:23 a.m. on a weekday, the height of rush hour, and take your pick of spaces. There's plenty. Since its inception in October of last year, the Greenbush Line has steadily drawn South Shore commuters from the Hingham Harbor to its rails.
"We estimate we've lost 780 daily ferry riders to Greenbush," MBTA scheduling manager Lauren Coughlin said.
But this decrease in daily Hingham Ferry ridership is a positive change for the MBTA and its South Shore commuters, she said.
Now providing a commuter rail, a boat, and a bus service to the Red Line, the MBTA is "serving different sectors of the population," she said. "All our services are serving different demographics of people who choose their mode of transportation based on convenience and comfort."
David Winters of Scituate likes that he now has a choice. "In the event that I miss my train or I have other things that I need to do closer to [Hingham] after work, I will take the ferry. The option provides me more convenience," he said.
Diane C. of Cohasset took the Greenbush once and hated it. "I didn't' like the chaos of South Station at rush hour to come home and the train was an hour and a half late. The ferry is a much more comfortable ride. There's no fighting to get on the boat or for seats," she said.
The ample seating is easily noticeable. Kelsie Hendricks, who runs "The Ally" concession bar on the ferry, said the 7:15 a.m. ferry, the busiest and most congested ride of the day, has dropped from a 300 ridership to 250.
And this effect has spread to the Town of Hingham itself. The Greenbush Line is providing the Hingham Harbor area more "breathing room," Coughlin said.
She said this new dilution alleviates congestion in the Hingham area. A few years ago the parking lots were filling up very fast in the morning and the MBTA was wondering how people could vary their travel times. The addition of commuting alternatives have now solved this problem without making commuters succumb to such compromises as flex time, in which work hours are staggered, she said.
"What it does is it makes room for new growth. There's a lot of development, residential and commercial, in the Hingham Shipyard. We're hoping that they'll be a 2-way commute vs. people just going to Boston on the ferry. Hopefully they'll be people from Boston coming out to Hingham to do some shopping," she said.
The MBTA expects Hingham's ferry ridership to go back up in the summer months, however. "We generally see a drop in November, around May riders start coming back. July and August are our busiest months," Coughlin said.
But now with the Greenbush, which, according to MBTA spokeswoman Lydia Rivera has increased from 1,300 daily riders in November to now 2,100, Coughlin is confident the MBTA can handle the summer rush.
"As far as the South Shore, I think we have it covered for now," Coughlin said.