Two of the five MBTA control board members insist the transit authority should move toward a system of fares based on riders’ ability to pay as it looks at potential increases to take effect next July.
The T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board, under a timeline developed by staff and discussed at a meeting Monday, would release a fare policy for public comment on Jan. 6 and vote to finalize fares in February or March.
Discounted fares are available for students and seniors, and the MBTA has undertaken pilot programs to offer means-based discounts to students and to disabled people who make use of the door-to-door the Ride program.
“At the end of the year we should be able to say how that’s going,” said Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, who said the MBTA partnered with one nonprofit and three municipalities on the discounted youth pass and administered the Ride pilot on its own.
Brian Lang, the labor representative on the control board, and Monica Tibbits-Nutt, another member, both advocated for implementing means testing as the T considers fare increases.
“I cannot in good conscience raise fares for people making, quite honestly, under $20,000 a year. I think it’s wrong. I do. I think it’s been done in the past – that we just do these fare increases across the board,” Tibbits-Nutt said. “Quite honestly 25 cents might not be a lot to people making $75,000 or more, but for someone making $20,000 a year it’s unconscionable and I just don’t think we can continue to do it and still have a discussion about equity all in the same document. That just seems insane to me.”
Lang said means-based fares should be an “explicit goal” of the MBTA. He told the News Service it is his understanding that Seattle bases fares on the ability of a rider to pay.
“One of the things that we’re going to have to explore is how is this implemented in other systems,” Lang said. “Our first step should be to see what’s the best-in-class way of doing it.”
Other board members and Pollack raised the issue of the feasibility of administering a means-based fare policy. Steve Poftak, a member of the board, said he did not want to endorse means-based testing without understanding the details of it.
“I’m comfortable putting it out there for discussion,” Poftak said.
The board on Monday did not vote on a fare policy document that would create the basis for more concrete proposals about fares.
Pollack said the discount riders receive by buying a monthly pass is one of the variables that the staff wants public feedback about. She said the MBTA “makes it more cost-effective to get a pass than other major transit systems in the country.”
Data presented by the MBTA showed subway riders do not start enjoying the discount of the $75 monthly pass until the 36th trip. The median for monthly use of a bus-subway Link pass is 40 linked trips per month – with transfers counting as one trip.
MBTA staff sketched out a timeline with a Dec. 21 vote on the fare policy document that would set the groundwork for fare changes.
Laurel Paget-Seekins, the director of strategic initiatives, plans to add a sentence to the document that reflects the board’s thoughts on looking at means-based fares.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo did not provide a copy of the unfinished document to the News Service and said it would be available online Tuesday after the sentence is added.
The MBTA can raise fares by as much as 10 percent next July 1, according to the administration’s interpretation of a cap on fare hikes in a 2013 law. Key senators involved in legislating that cap say it should have limited fare increases to 5 percent every two years.
All of the modes of transit run by the MBTA receive some level of public subsidy.
