Free Buses In Worcester: Councilor Wants To Move On Idea

WORCESTER, MA — A Worcester Councilor wants to study making WRTA bus service fare-free, an idea that is gaining traction among transit activists in cities across the U.S. In Worcester, the idea has been talked about for months, and even has support from the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Councilor Gary Rosen is asking the Council's Committee on Public Service and Transportation to hold public hearings this year across Worcester on the fare-free idea. The idea was first proposed in a report released last May by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau. Eliminating bus fares might boost WRTA ridership, which hit a 13-year low in 2018, the report said. Free fares would also benefit low-income people — close to 70 percent of bus riders earn under $25,000 per year, according to WRTA.

Free-fares could cost about $3 million per year, which is how much WRTA earned collecting $1.75 bus fares in 2017, according to the most recent WRTA annual report. But that fare doesn't come close to paying for the system. Each passenger trip required a $4.64 subsidy in 2017.

"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," the Worcester Regional Research Bureau report said.

In a November transportation package request, the Worcester Chamber asked elected officials to enact a three-year fare-free pilot program. If it happens, Worcester would be one of the first large cities in the U.S. to make buses free.

In early December, the City Council in Kansas City unanimously voted to make that city's bus system free at a cost of about $8 million. However, the city has not implemented the idea.

Amid a visible increase in fare enforcement in cities like Seattle and New York, transit activists have pushed to eliminate or reduce fares. Those efforts were largely motivated by disproportionate fare enforcement against homeless people and minority groups.

Rosen will formally ask the City Council to take up the free-fare idea at the regular Tuesday meeting. He is specifically asking for a three-year pilot.

"As in several other cities and towns across America, it is expected that such a change would significantly increase ridership, reliability and efficiency, among others," Rosen's order says.