The goal of a fully green and healthier Mattapan will be several bus routes closer to reality when the Arborway Yard bus garage opens in Jamaica Plain in 2027, a move that T officials say will allow every route serving Mattapan to have fully electric buses, free of the diesel fuel pollution of existing vehicles.
A handful of Dorchester routes, such as the #22 on Talbot Avenue and the #16 on Columbia Road, will also benefit by being moved to the Arborway Yard and thus, electrified.
Scott Hamwey and Alexandra Markiewicz of the MBTA appeared at the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council (GMNC) last Monday to make the announcement and go over the beginnings of the project, which will be the second of many bus garage replacement projects, with Quincy being the first and just now under construction.
“The reasons we have come out now is because of lot of the bus service coming to Mattapan comes from the Arborway garage,” said Hamwey. “One of the goals is to electrify all the lines that come out of the Arborway…including the seven Mattapan routes…Putting the Arborway up front allows us to electrify those routes faster. From an equity standpoint, Arborway is really the best place for us to start this effort.”
The Arborway Yard houses diesel buses, but mostly Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses that were purchased 20 years ago and will be phased out by 2030. Moving to electric buses when the new garage opens in 2027 will help with the retirement of CNG technology, Markiewicz said. Some 118 CNG buses will be replaced by 200 battery electric buses. It will also mean the routes in Mattapan, including Routes 21, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, and 33, will move to electric buses, which will be, said Markiewicz, “a lot cleaner and a lot quieter” going along thoroughfares like River Street and Blue Hill Avenue, among others.
In addition, the #28 bus on Blue Hill Avenue will be moved from its starting point on Southampton Street in Roxbury to the Arborway Yard, allowing it to also become electrified.
In Dorchester, the Route 16 bus, which runs partly along Columbia Road en route from Forest Hills to Andrew Station and JFK-UMass at Columbia Point, will move to Arborway, allowing it to become electric. Finally, the Route 22 that comes from Roxbury Crossing and travels across Dorchester on Blue Hill Avenue and Talbot Avenue to Ashmont Station will also move to Arborway and become electrified.
The new garage will also allow routes to be upgraded from 40-foot buses to 60-foot vehicles, based on demand.
One asterisk on the electrification plan notes that a back-up heating system that runs on diesel fuel that will be included on board the electric buses for extremely cold days. Electric vehicles often have trouble keeping up a charge in frigid times when they must also provide a lot of heat; heat does not come off an electric engine as it does with a combustion engine.
Said Hamwey: “We believe it will be needed for another five or 10 years until battery technology advances…It’s just on really cold days we feel we need the complimentary heat.”
Some neighbors wondered if the five-hour down time at the garage overnight would be long enough to fully re-charge the fleet. Officials said they believe that with remote charging stations at Ashmont and Mattapan Stations, they can make it work seamlessly.
“Our models indicate we have time to charge up the buses in plenty of time,” said Hamwey. “The fact that it’s indoor storage, every bus having a parking spot, and its own charger and the complimentary diesel heaters on really cold days…we feel we can meet the goal with this.”
State Rep. Russell Holmes said it will be important for Mattapan to remain in the conversation on the new garage. He urged both the MBTA and the community to stay focused on this project even though it’s not in Mattapan. He referenced the dismantling of the Casey Overpass in Forest Hills and how that affected Mattapan, which had no input on that project.
“This is something that really impacts us,” he said. “It’s every bus route in Mattapan and then some. Let’s make sure we understand that just because it’s the Arborway we don’t think it isn’t us. It is us.”
Added resident Barbara Crichlow: “Any time a project like this comes into our area we need to be a part of it. MBTA projects really affect Mattapan, and the people say they don’t know anything about it.”
The Arborway Yard was built 15 years ago as a temporary facility located on Washington Street and the Arborway. The new garage will be located on the back of the lot closer to Franklin Park where a vacant, former MBTA headquarters building now sits. Plans include demolishing that building and putting up a two-story garage with all indoor storage and charging operations, meaning that none of the buses will be outside any longer, resulting in easier and faster charging, Markiewicz said.
The eight-acre front lots where the yard is located now on Washington Street in JP would likely be put out for development.
