A free bus service in Worcester could work, but it would come with a $3 million price tag.
The Zero Fare WRTA Coalition held a panel discussion Monday night featuring Senator Harriette L. Chandler, State Rep. David Leboeuf, Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera and Worcester Regional Research Bureau research associate Tom Quinn.
All of those panelists made the case for a free bus system in Worcester and noted now is the time to implement one.
“People use public transportation for three main things,” said Leboeuf, “To make money, to spend money or to get health and wellness. And that’s something that clearly is worth an investment.”
The Zero Fare WRTA Coalition was formed after the Worcester Regional Research Bureau’s “Implications of a Fare-Free WRTA” report published in May. The coalition is made up of citizens advocating and organizing for a Worcester public transit system that is efficient, frequent, convenient and free, the group says.
Quinn, of the Research Bureau, presented the report to the panel Monday night, stating, “Making the WRTA fare-free is not charity. It is a way to increase the efficiency of a key government service in a creative and compassionate way.”
In the report, the Research Bureau makes the case that “research and evidence from other cities have shown going fare-free to be perhaps the most effective ridership-boosting plan available to bus systems, a priority for a system like the WRTA that is suffering from significant drops in ridership.”
WRTA ridership has declined 23% between — before the latest fare hike — and 2018. Last year had the fewest passenger trips since a driver strike in 2005, and the lowest in a non-strike year since tracking began in 1991, according to the Research Bureau.
As far as revenue, in 2018, the WRTA collected roughly $3 million in fare revenue. The loss of that revenue could be mitigated by the elimination of fare collecting costs, the Research Bureau explains.
“In 2018, farebox revenue made up 14 percent of the WRTA’s total operating expenses, the lowest mark in 10 years,” the Research Bureau writes in its report. “The action of collecting fares is not free, as infrastructure and staff time are needed to process incoming money. Collecting fares also creates operational inefficiencies, including delays during the boarding process. One common complaint about bus systems is tardiness or unreliability; eliminating fares may mitigate those concerns. The ridership boost from eliminating fares — which, according to research from systems that have done it, is substantial — reduces per passenger costs, making systems more cost efficient.”
In September, the city of Lawrence took progressive steps to make three bus routes free of charge to riders for two years by paying the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority $225,000 from its free cash reserves for the operational costs.
Much of the discussion Monday centered around how to fund a fare-free bus system. Rivera argued that municipalities should be responsible for covering the cost of a fare-free system.
“I’m a big advocate for municipalities to pay for this,” he said. “...The problem is $3 million sounds like a lot of money, but if you compare it to the rest of the budget, it’s probably not that big of a percentage.”
Currently, the WRTA adult fare is $1.75. That is money that could be put to use elsewhere for folks living on low incomes, Rivera explained.
“If you only make $20,000 a year, which 76% of people that we surveyed who took the free bus made less than $20,000 a year and they were going to work,” he said. “So, a buck a day, that’s $350 a year...That’s eggs and milk. It’s real money.”
The reason to do it, Rivera said, is because it helps people in the lowest part of the economic level. It is incumbent on local governments to do something for the local people, he added.
Wu echoed Rivera’s sentiments.
“Everyone benefits, every single person benefits when we make public transportation run faster, more efficient, more accessible, more affordable, [and] more reliable,” Wu said. “It is not just the people who are now sitting on those buses and trains.”
Wu added that impacts such as fewer cars on the road can improve commutes and produce less pollution for cleaner air.
“The conversation we are having now, I imagine is very similar to what it was like when people first started public libraries,” Wu said. “...In this case, we have a lot documentation. We have proof from Lawrence. We have research in Worcester. And we have a whole lot of energy in Boston to back it up as well...The pandemic, in fact, is not the moment to ease off because we are experiencing financial hardships everywhere. It is the moment to dig in and say, ‘This is forcing us to reimagine. This is forcing us to rethink how we pay for things and how we invest in things people desperately need’.”
Chandler remarked that citizens have a right to get to work, to go to a movie or see a friend.
“This is about expanding access to our community in a way many of us take very much for granted,” she said. “And we need to start talking about it in just that way.”
Worcester City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. recently responded to the call for a fare-free WRTA in an interview on the Talk of the Commonwealth radio show, stating, “I think it’s a great idea, I do think it would transform the Regional Transit Authorities by having a fare-free system...It certainly would help many of our most vulnerable, our essential workers, and others who rely on that system to get to work, to get to their medical appointments etc.”
The cost of $3 million dollars, however, is a big number in this economic environment, Augustus said.
He pointed to losses of weekend and evening service from the MBTA and the loss of commercial service at the Worcester Regional Airport as examples of transportation challenges the city is currently facing.
“I certainly support the fare-free concept,” said Augustus. “But we would really need the state to be able to support that. That’s not something the city could support financially. But I realize in this context, it’s going to be very difficult given all the recent setbacks in our other transportation systems as well.”
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