Utilities Committee Charges MTA Cannot Speed People to Park St. in Eight Minutes

"The new sign on the Harvard Square kiosk, 'MTA Rapid Transit, 84 minutes to Park Street,' is a misrepresentation of fact," the Public Utilities Research Committee charged yesterday.

"Our figures reveal the average trip takes at least 9:14," a committee spokesman said. The exaggerated claim is apparently part of the MTA's attempts to thwart Mayor Foley's Plan to remove the kiosk, the spokesman added.

Time checks taken by research teams during non-rush hours, also revealed that the Boston-to-Harvard trip was usually shorter than the Square-to-Boston run by nine seconds.

The group's statistics calculated according to average clockings, show that it takes 33 seconds from the entrance of the kiosk, to buy a token and get on a train.

After 58 seconds the train leaves the station to arrive at Central almost two minutes later. The train stops at Kendall 5 minutes and 11 seconds after the passenger enters the kiosk. From Kendall it takes only 1:44 to get to Charles Street Station, and then only 1:16 to Park Street. After leaving the car it takes the average city-dweller 40 seconds to climb to the street.

It takes about 16 seconds for passengers to filter through the trains at each station, and the complete trip takes at least 1:14 second larger than MTA calculations.