Free public transport Free public transport, often called fare-free public transit or zero-fare public transport, refers to public transport funded in full by means other than by collecting fares from passengers. It may be funded by national, regional or local gove ...

has been implemented in parts of the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

through various trials and programs since the 2010s. Pilot programs have been run on several transit agencies in the state, with many of these pilot programs arising following losses of ridership during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. Forms of fare-free public transport have received political support from prominent Massachusetts politicians such as Governor

Maura Healey Maura Tracy Healey (born February 8, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the Massachusetts Attorney General since January 2015. She is the governor-elect of Massachusetts, having won the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial electi ...

, U.S. Senator

Ed Markey Edward John Markey (born July 11, 1946) is an American lawyer, politician, and former Army reservist who has served as the junior United States senator from Massachusetts since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representa ...

, U.S. Congresswoman

Ayanna Pressley Ayanna Soyini Pressley (born February 3, 1974) is an American politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district since 2019. This district includes the northern three quarters of Boston, most of C ...

, Boston Mayor

Michelle Wu Michelle Wu ( zh, t=吳弭, first=t; born January 14, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the mayor of Boston, mayor of Boston, Massachusetts since 2021. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

, former Boston acting mayor

Kim Janey Kim Michelle Janey (born May 16, 1965) is an American politician who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th dist ...

, and Attorney General

Andrea Campbell Andrea Joy Campbell (born June 11, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who is the Attorney General-elect of Massachusetts. She is also a former member of the Boston City Council. On the city council, she represented District 4, which includ ...

Boston

Early advocacy

Matthew Haugen of ''

Nonprofit Quarterly ''The Nonprofit Quarterly'', also known as ''NPQ'', is a nonprofit magazine publication which provides research-based articles and resources to educate the nonprofit sector. The publication focuses on management, fundraising practices, phila ...

'' credits

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

support for the idea of free public transit in Boston in the 2010s as coming from groups such as Alternatives for Community and Environment, particularly that group's transit-oriented development director, Mela Bush-Miles. City Councilor

argued that the

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network i ...

(MBTA) should explore the possibility of eliminating fares in a January 31, 2019

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. ...

published in ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

''. Later in 2019, she and City Councilor

proposed making the MBTA Route 28 bus fare-free. Wu's August 2020 proposal for a

Boston Green New Deal The municipal "Green New Deal" of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States is a Green New Deal policy agenda promoted by Michelle Wu (the current mayor of Boston). She first proposed it in August 2020 Boston City Council tenure of Michelle Wu, w ...

incorporated a call for Boston to pursue fare-free public transportation. Crediting Councilwoman Wu as a leader on free public transit, in January 2021, the

editorial board The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take. Mass media At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, ...

of ''The Boston Globe'' endorsed the idea of making Boston's buses fare-free. Wu would come to be considered a prominent voice in both the local and national push for fare-free public transit.

Limited free transit pass pilot program (2021)

In March 2021, Kim Janey, at the time the city of Boston's acting

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

, announced a pilot program that would offer 1,000 workers in five of the city's business districts (

East Boston East Boston, nicknamed Eastie, is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts annexed by the city of Boston in 1637. Neighboring communities include Winthrop, Revere, and Chelsea. It is separated from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown and dow ...

, and Fields Corner,

Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commu ...

Mission Hill Mission Hills or Mission Hill may refer to: Places Communities ;In the United States (alphabetically by state) * Mission Hills, Santa Barbara County, California, a town north of the city of Lompoc * Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California, in the S ...

Nubian Square Nubian Square (formerly Dudley Square) is the primary commercial center of the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located at the intersection of Dudley Street and Washington Street. It has long been the center of African American cult ...

, Three Squares) free

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

and

Bluebikes Bluebikes, originally Hubway, is a bicycle sharing system in the Boston metropolitan area. As of July 2021, the system had deployed 393 stations with a fleet of over 3,800 bikes in the 10 municipalities it served. Bluebikes is operated by Motiva ...

passes with up to $60 in credit.

Fare-free MBTA bus route pilot program (2021–present)

In June 2021, Acting Boston Mayor Janey announced that the city would be funding a $500,000 three-month pilot that would see the MBTA's Route 28 bus be made fare-free. In 2019, as a city councilor, she and fellow councilor Michelle Wu had previously called for this bus route to be made fare-free. The city, in November 2021, announced that its data showed that during the pilot program ridership had increased to an excess of 70,000 in weekly ridership. Pre-

weekly ridership on the route had been 47,000, making the COVID-era pilot program ridership significantly greater despite the general impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transportation rider. The city concluded that, in comparison to ridership trends on comparable routes of the MBTA, the increase in ridership was directly attributable to the pilot program. A later more in-depth 2022 analysis found an overall 38% increase in weekday ridership from 7,500 before the pandemic to 10,200 during the September and October periods during the pilot program. During the

2021 Boston mayoral election The 2021 Boston mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2021, to elect the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. Incumbent mayor Marty Walsh was eligible to seek a third term. However, he resigned as mayor on March 22, 2021, after being con ...

, in which Kim Janey and Michelle Wu were candidates, fellow candidate

voiced her support for making all of the city's buses fare-free. Candidate

John Barros John F. Barros (born 1973) is an American politician, businessman, and civic organizer who was formerly the chief of economic development for the City of Boston. He also served as the executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiati ...

supported making ridership free for some

low-income Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

income< ...

riders on select bus lines. Candidate

Annissa Essaibi George Annissa Essaibi George (born December 12, 1973) is an American politician who served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council. First elected in 2015, she served on the council from 2016 to 2022. She was a candidate in the 2021 Boston may ...

was critical of the idea of free public transport, questioning its feasibility. In December 2021, Michelle Wu, who had won the 2021 mayoral election and was now mayor of Boston, extended the pilot program by two months. Wu afterwards succeeded in launching a two-year program to have the MBTA Route 23, 28, and 29 buses run fare-free for two years, with this program beginning on March 1, 2022. These buses serve the Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury communities. Wu's mayoral campaign had included advocacy for fare-free public transit with the catchphrase "Free the T" ("the T" being a nickname for the MBTA). She filed paperwork for this expansion of the pilot program on her first day as mayor. In mid-November 2021, Wu had sent an appropriations order to the

Boston City Council The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no ...

requesting their approval to appropriate $8 million of federal funds to fund the two years of fare-free service on the three bus routes. The funds are COVID-19 pandemic relief funds. At the start of December, the City Council approved the appropriations order 12–1. On February 9, 2022, it was announced by Wu and MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak that the two-year program for the three routes to be fare-free was officially agreed to and would be launched on March 1, 2022. In February 2022, a report was released by MBTA that showed that in the initial pilot, Route 23 saw a 20% increase in ridership. However, the report showed that due to the limited scope of the pilot, impacting only one line, 66% of riders on the route did not save money on fares as they were required to purchase transit passes for connecting trips. The report also claimed that the fare-free service decreased travel time on the route, with there being a 20% reduction in lag time at stops due to the elimination of fare collection. The initial pilot program had seen the line reach 90% of the pre-pandemic ridership numbers. Reports show that between February 2021 and February 2023, average weekday ridership on the three lines included in the pilot program had doubled: * Route 23 increased from 4,783 average weekday ridership to 10,185 * Route 28 increased from 5,571 average weekday ridership to 10,905 * Route 29 increased from 735 average weekday ridership to 1,652 Reports also showed that average weekday ridership had also increased on all three lines by February 2023 compared to pre-COVID-19 pandemic ridership numbers. This came in contrast a 21% overall decrease in average weekday ridership on the whole MBTA bus system compared to pre-pandemic ridership (February 2023 vs. February 2020). *Route 23 had 10,185 average weekday riders in February 2023 compared to 8,845 in February 2020 *Route 28 had 10,905 average weekday riders in February 2023 compared to 9,128 in February 2020 *Route 29 had 1,652 average weekday riders in February 2023 compared to 1,591 in February 2020 According to a rider survey released in March 2023, 26% percent of passengers on the three fare-free routes saved in excess of $20 per month due to the elimination of fares on those routes. The survey also revealed that 15% of rides on the three bus lines are trips that otherwise would not have been taken using any mode (public or private) in the absence of the fare-free public transit options. At the end of the two-year pilot, the city reported that riders had saved more than $6 million on fares in its two-year run, with half of the riders having savings which averaged $35 per month. Boston, by late-2022, was looking at further expansion of the program. By April 2023, there were discussions between Boston,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

, and MBTA about additionally making MBTA Route 1 fare-free. In February 2024, the city authorized a $8.4 million two-year extension of the three-route pilot into 2026.

Two-month fare-free service on the MBTA Blue Line (July and August 2023)

During the temporary closure of Boston's

Sumner Tunnel The Sumner Tunnel is a road tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It carries traffic under Boston Harbor in one direction, from Logan International Airport and Route 1A in East Boston. The tunnel originally deposited traffic at the w ...

(scheduled to last July 5 through August 31, 2023), the

MBTA Blue Line The Blue Line is a rapid transit line in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, one of MBTA subway, four rapid transit lines operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). It runs from Bowdoin (MBTA station), Bowdoin station i ...

rapid transit line ran fare-free.

Other MBTA fare-free service

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the December 31, last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly ...

in December 2022, the MBTA offered fare-free late-night service on all of its services.

Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority

2019 elimination of fares on three routes in Lawrence

In 2019, fares were eliminated on three

Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority The Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MVRTA) is a public, non-profit organization in Massachusetts, United States, charged with providing public transportation to an area consisting of the cities and towns of Amesbury, Andover, Boxford ...

(MVRTA) bus lines serving the city of Lawrence. This was made possible with funding provided by the city of Lawrence. Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera had been influenced by Michelle Wu of Boston's advocacy for fare-free transit when he pushed to implement this program.

Systemwide pilot program (2022–present)

In February 2022, the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority Board voted to launch a two-year pilot program which eliminates fares on bus and

paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

services in all of the municipalities that it serves. The program launched that March.

Worcester Regional Transit Authority systemwide program (2020–present)

The city of

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 census, making it the second- most populous city in New England after ...

had been experiencing a movement for fare elimination prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it would not be until the pandemic that this push succeeded in creating an interim fare-free policy. In 2019,

Worcester Regional Transit Authority Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA) is a public, non-profit organization charged with providing public transportation to the city of Worcester, Massachusetts and the surrounding towns. The WRTA was created in September 1974 under Chapt ...

(WRTA) itself began to explore the possibility of running fare-free buses in order to increase ridership and improve transit affordability. Beginning in March 2020, amid the pandemic, WRTA launched an interim fare-elimination program. COVID-19 relief funding has been used as the source of funding for this program. The fare-elimination has extended several times. Most recently, in April 2023, it was extended to continue through June 2024. In the meeting when this unanimous vote to continue the program was made, several board members declared that the system would need to begin finding alternate forms of funding if it wanted to continue the policy even further into the future due to the limited nature of federal COVID-relief funds. By 2022, ridership had increased during the free public transport program above what pre-pandemic numbers had been. 2022 ridership on the WRTA bus system was 20% higher than ridership had been before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in contrast to most other transit systems in the United States which had seen a decline from pre-pandemic ridership. In 2023, the nonprofit Worcester Regional Research Bureau published a study which indicated that the system was Massachusetts' only transit system to exceed its pre-COVID-19 pandemic bus ridership numbers. As of 2023, per the Zero Fair Coalition, the WRTA had the longest-running active systemwide fare-free policy of any United States bus system.

Other pilot programs

From March 25, 2020, until April 1, 2021, the

Southeastern Regional Transit Authority Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SRTA) is a public transport authority in Bristol County and Plymouth County, Massachusetts. It serves 10 municipalities in Massachusetts' South Coast region: Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Fall River, ...

ran its buses fare-free. In 2021, the

Brockton Area Transit Authority Brockton Area Transit Authority, branded as Brockton Area Transit (BAT), is a public, non-profit organization in Massachusetts, charged with providing public transportation to the Brockton area, consisting of the city of Brockton and the adjoini ...

ran a pilot program of free public transit on summer weekends in hopes of regaining ridership lost over the course of the COVID pandemic. From April 26, 2021, until June 30, 2023, the

Franklin Regional Transit Authority The Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA) is a regional transit authority which provides public transportation principally to Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, both in Massachusetts. The FRTA is based in the county seat of Gre ...

ran its fixed bus routes fare-free using COVID-19 relief funding. Beginning November 15, 2022, a 37-day pilot $2.5 million program was launched in which the State of Massachusetts provided several regional transportation authorities in different parts of state with funding for 37 days of fare elimination. The program did not include the MBTA. Among the agencies participating in the program was the

Pioneer Valley Transit Authority The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) oversees and coordinates public transportation in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. Currently the PVTA offers fixed-route bus service as well as paratransit service for the elderly and disa ...

. A spokesperson for

, who took office as governor in January 2023, declared that Healey would be "reviewing the results of the Try Transit Holiday initiative, as well as other fare-free programs across the state." Before taking office, Healey had pledged to create "a pathway to fare free buses" in Massachusetts.

Support for free public transport by members of Massachusetts' congressional delegation

In June 2020, United States Congresswoman

and Massachusetts U.S. Senator

proposed a federal bill to establish a $5 billion federal grant program to support localities that operate fare-free bus and rail transit services. They reintroduced the bill in April 2023.

References

{{reflist

External links

;Documents on Boston bus pilot program
Free Route 23, 28, AND 29 Bus Program
–City of Boston
Fare-Free Program for Routes 23, 28, and 29
–Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority City of Boson reports:
City of Boston Fare Free Program Mid Program Report (March 2023)Route 28 Fare-Free Pilot Evaluation Summary Findings (March 2023)

Survey Results Appendix
February 2023 City of Boston press release:
English versionSpanish versionHaitian Creole version
Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority documents:
MBTA Boston Free Bus: Fare Equity Analysis Results technical memorandum (June 2022)Press release: "Pilot Program Offering Free Fares on Route 28 Bus for Three Months This Fall" (July 26, 2021)
;Worcester Regional Research Bureau reports on Worcester Regional Transit Authority
Resurging Regional Ridership An analysis of mobility flows, riders, and ridership in the WRTA region (April 2023)
Transportation in Boston 2010s in Boston 2020s in Boston Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Free public transport Michelle Wu Kim Janey Ed Markey Lawrence, Massachusetts Transportation in Worcester, Massachusetts Transportation in Worcester County, Massachusetts Transportation in Essex County, Massachusetts 2010s in Massachusetts 2020s in Massachusetts Public transportation in Massachusetts