After a rigorous 15-month bout of surveys, brainstorming sessions and meetings, a state-led review of the public transportation needs in for  Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan (RDM) is finally drawing to a close. The process has generated several new ideas about how to improve transit in the three neighborhoods, but its resolution also coincides with the latest bad news from the MBTA. Pending system-wide fare hikes and service cuts will likely keep many of the study’s ideas from becoming reality in the near future.

In addition to fare increases of 35 to 50 percent for most services, MBTA riders are facing scenarios which would totally eliminate some weekend or weekday service on nearly all bus lines, and cancel weekend service to both the commuter rail and the Mattapan trolley to Ashmont Station. The proposed cuts and fare hikes will be discussed in a series of public meetings starting this month, including one set for Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. in Mattapan’s Mildred Ave. Community Center.

“Our concern is that these cuts will undermine much of the work that we have done over the past 15 months, and that they will disproportionately hurt minority communities,” said  Bob Terrell, a member of the Washington Street Corridor Coalition during the RDM advisory group meeting at Mattapan Library, held on Tuesday evening. 

Terrell’s comment echoed those of many members of the RDM study advisory group, consisting of local residents of the three neighborhoods, who worry that the proposed cuts would effectively nullify months of their work on the study.

“The MBTA can’t tell this community about fairness...that it’s fair because the same thing is happening across the board, because this community is already coming from a deficit,” said City Councillor Charles Yancey, who attended the meeting.

Scott Hamwey, MassDOT’s project director for the RDM study, was confident that the T’s financial setbacks would not destroy all of the progress that the RDM study has made, however.

“It’s awkward that we are nearing the finish line just as the T is announcing these service changes, but I think this study will still do some good,” Hamwey said. “I want to stress that there is no funding tied to this study...that it’s meant to be used as a kind of road map for when funding becomes available. I think that we should be able to keep moving forward with some of our shorter-term improvements, in spite of this rough period.”

The study’s findings— due to be formally released in a written report next month— are based on some 1,400 surveys, as well as suggestions generated through the regular meetings of the advisory group. The ideas were separated into five model scenarios, ranging from short-term, low cost improvements, like bus stop consolidation, to longer-term solutions, like extending the Green Line through Dorchester and Mattapan. The scenarios were then simulated and compared against the current service, for emissions, trip times, and other considerations.

The RDM group plans to release its findings to the MBTA and the public in late February. Tuesday’s meeting at the Mattapan library branch was scheduled to be the last of the process. However, due to the increased fare proposals from the MBTA, several members of the advisory group rallied around a separate effort to draft a statement of concerns to be shared at several public hearings scheduled by the T through the end of March.