PEABODY — The Massachusetts Port Authority, which had been locked in a political showdown with Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry, has reversed its decision to terminate the express bus between Peabody and Logan International Airport.

When the current Logan Express ceases at the end of April, it will be replaced by a new service, a Massport representative said yesterday.

"There will be no lapse in service," Massport spokesman Richard Walsh said. "It will just be a different bus company."

Berry praised Massport for changing course but said he does not know the details of the new service. At this point, he said, he has little more than a promise that there will be some kind of Logan express bus from the "Peabody area."

"I don't think it will be as frequent as it is now," the Peabody lawmaker said, "but they are promising some remedy to this, and they're in the process of negotiating with at least two carriers."

Massport will "issue a (proposal) that will allow an independent contractor to continue the bus service," Walsh said.

While saying the details still have to be worked out, Walsh said the service will be "comparable."
Berry has been up in arms since January, when Massport voted to end the Logan Express from Route 1 in Peabody, which had few riders and had lost $5 million since its inception in 2001. He was upset because neither he nor any other North Shore officials were consulted or even contacted about the change.

Berry and others argued that the Logan Express had more than 87,000 riders last year and might have done better with more advertising, smaller vehicles or other changes.

The veteran legislator also was upset because he felt North Shore commuters were being shortchanged. He said they pay a $3 toll to cross the Tobin Bridge and, in his view, contribute more to Massport than other regions of the state.

Joined by state Reps. Joyce Spiliotis of Peabody and Ted Speliotis of Danvers, Berry filed legislation to add a North Shore representative to Massport's seven-member board and a second bill to investigate the agency's decision to cancel the Logan Express from Peabody. Both are pending before the Joint Committee on Transportation.

The round-trip Logan Express costs $20 and departs from a parking depot on Route 1 south in Peabody near the junction of Interstate 95. The new bus service is expected to use a different location.

Berry said he wanted to make an announcement yesterday — before final details are known — to reassure the large number of residents who have been calling his office to protest. He said he expects to have more details in a few weeks.

"We got a ton of phone calls from North Shore residents — a real lot from Peabody and Danvers," he said. "I realize what a vital service this was."

Vital or not, the Logan Express was used by relatively few North Shore residents compared to the number of riders on three other Logan Express buses in Greater Boston. Braintree, for example, had nearly 500,000 riders in 2005, Framingham 375,000 and Woburn almost 275,000.