Several subway commuters and musicians welcomed changes to Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority guidelines for subway performers Wednesday but said they are still too restrictive after the MBTA announced the changes Tuesday.
Changes to the MBTA’s Subway Performers Program Policy, first announced in mid-November, include allowing amplifiers and certain horn instruments that the authority had tried to ban last month, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The new guidelines allow amplifiers, but only if they did not exceed 80 decibels within 25 feet of the performer. The MBTA will also allow all horn instruments except trumpets, including saxophones and French horns, which were previously banned under the new policy.
Performers will still have to pay an annual $25 fee to perform on MBTA property, and will only be allowed to perform in designated station areas.
Kenji Ota, a musician and University of Massachusetts student, said his use of amplifiers was necessary to his performance as a musician.
“I play classical guitar, flamenco and rock,” Ota said. “Amplifiers are necessary. I’m pretty happy about the decision.”
Other people were not as pleased with the changes.
Yaduri Sanchez, a Green Line commuter, said she worried about the welfare of certain musicians who were unable to perform because of the new regulations.
“If they don’t have a job, they will start vandalism,” Sanchez said. “It’s better to have the music. I don’t think they bother anybody.”
Amy Dumlao, a WGBH-TV Channel 2 employee, said she was worried more about the effect of the regulations on the Boston community.
“I think [the musicians] are part of the whole flavor of the T stops,” Dumlao said. “The new regulations increase the alienation of the city. The music brings people together.”
Dumlao also said she dislikes the notion of using permits to allow people to perform.
“It’s a passive-aggressive way of cutting musicians out,” she said.
Susan Molnar, a Tufts University undergraduate student, agreed with Dumlao about the policy’s larger societal impact.
“It scares me,” Molnar said. “Are they going to regulate my behavior in public? If it’s public, why can’t I get the rights promised to me in the Constitution?”
Molnar did say she understood why there would be need for some regulation.
“I can understand the decibel limit in case something did happen, and they needed to announce it,” she added.
But Dumlao said she thinks the likelihood of music drowning out announcements is small.
“I could count on one hand the number of PA announcements I’ve heard,” Dumlao said. “None of them have been worth hearing.”
Many commuters said the musicians are an integral part of T culture. Shantal Kanonga said it is the freedom of musicians that brings T riders together.
“They’ve got to be free,” she said. “Most people [riding on the T] are lonely. Listening to the music warms you up.”