Three years ago a proposed one-mile center busway from Jackson Square / Ruggles Street was planned as phase two of the successful Egleston busway, which opened in 2021.

As reported by The Bulletin on June 13, 2023. the Jackson-Ruggles busway is a collaboration between the MBTA and City of Boston with Phillip Cherry MBTA senior planner and Maya Mudgal Boston Transportation Department (BTD) transit planner.

It was funded at the time with $12 million of federal funds and $2 million in city funds.

Cherry explained at the May 23, 2023 virtual meeting: “There’s some exciting changes at Jackson Square… routing of buses at Jackson occupied a lot of our focus.”

That was then, this is now.

Acting on a recent Sunday night tip, The Bulletin opened a March 25 StreetBlogMass Bluesky post. “SCOOP: Administration delays Columbus Ave. transit project. City Hall planners told to cancel meetings with T.”

“Through a public records request,” wrote StreetBlogMass Christopher Niel, “emails reveal how senior officials in Mayor Wu’s administration had delayed work on a long-planned MBTA project… Columbus Ave Phase II that would extend the [Egleston Square] busway to Ruggles Station [with] improved pedestrian crossings and several new [center] bus platforms.”

In November 2025 the MBTA told StreetBlog Mass that “The project was in its final design phase and expected to go out to bid in 2025.”

One email StreetBlogMass quoted was from City of Boston Transit Planner Tyler Wood on Feb. 5, 2026 to MBTA senior planner Phillip Cherry. “The city will not have feedback on Tremont Columbus phase II (sic) by February 20.”

A Feb. 13 email from Wood to Cherry stated, “I’ve been informed that Streets Planning and Policy has been directed to not participate in external meetings without express approval from [Chief of Streets] Nick Gove.”

Mayor Wu pushed back in BlueSky about March 26. “Getting some Q? on this – why are we cancelling and why no explanation? Both not true.”

“Not trying to cancel the project: working to share meaningful feedback to the MBTA based on learning from Phase I [Egleston Square] of installation, experience of community members and new info on a major abutting parcel [P3 Madison Park high school].”

Wu screen-grabbed a March 23 letter from acting Chief of Streets Nick Gove to Lysney Heffernan MBTA chief of policy and strategic planning. “The city of Boston has reviewed the MBTA’s 75% design for the proposed Columbus Ave bus lanes Phase II… which in general speak to the need for a reconsideration of the design,” Gove wrote.

He continued, “The current 75%-100% plans do not fully address the safety and operational challenges from Phase I [Egleston Square] which must be considered.”

“The city of Boston recently announced plans to build a new Madison park Technical and Vocational high school at Parcel P3.”

“Early review recommends the Tremont Street frontage as the preferred location for school bus activity.”

“As plans for Tremont Columbus Phase II evolve, this future need should be considered.”

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Although Gove admits “the school project is at a preliminary stage of planning and design.”

Gove recommends a significant design change which would have a major impact on the “Jackson Square log jam” as that station was described in 2023.

Gove wants the center bus lanes to be replaced with side-running bus lanes in both directions from Malcolm X Blvd to Heath Street.

Gove said he wants to scrap the 2023 plan of a center lane busway, which had three center platform bus shelters after Jackson Square at Cedar St, Roxbury Crossing and Prentiss Street. This is in addition to related busway changes within the station area itself.

“It’s a way to improve things for all the new development coming,” Cherry said in May 2023.

That development is here: 223 units at Mildred Hailey apartments, 122 units at 250 Centre St. and 65 units at 1588 Columbus Ave.; 450 units completed and occupied.

Gove does not seem to acknowledge that 450 units of housing are completed and occupied at Jackson Square, while Madison Park vocational high school is years away.

At the May 23, 2023 meeting, Cherry said the plan was to finish Phase II in 2025.

In his March 23, 2026 letter, Gove asked to schedule a time to discuss the “concerns in detail” with the MBTA.

The Wu administration did not respond to three Bulletin messages asking if that meeting had been scheduled.

Gove told the city council during a contentious April 22 hearing on delayed transit projects, “We are scheduled to kind of reconvene with the MBTA at the end of the month.”

StreetBlog Mass wrote that, “Columbus Ave [Phase II] was slated to receive” $34 million from two federal sources “budgeted for fiscal year 2026 which ends on June 30. It’s unclear what will happen to those funds if the MBTA misses that deadline.”

At the city council hearing Gove said, “We have asked the MBTA to check in with the Federal Transportation Administration about flexibility of the grant conditions.”