WRTA vote: Free bus rides in Worcester to continue into 2025
WORCESTER — The free rides will continue.
The Worcester Regional Transit Authority Advisory Board voted unanimously Thursday to keep fares free as part of the authority's budget for the next fiscal year, through June 2025.
WRTA buses are now budgeted as free for a fifth year, dating to the start of COVID-19.
“We are thrilled that the WRTA Board has voted to continue free-fare service. Today, ridership is higher than pre-pandemic levels and higher than it’s ever been. With the extension of the program, families and residents in WRTA service areas will continue to have access to affordable transit,” Deb Cary of the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the Zero Fare Worcester Coalition said in a statement. “Free-fares reduces greenhouse gas emissions by getting people out of cars onto public transit. This is an initiative that addresses the environment and equity.”
Meantime, the authority is reporting increased ridership.
The WRTA Advisory Board approved a fiscal 2025 budget of $37,250,134. The advisory board allocated $4,533,426 in remaining funding from the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
According to a presentation by Deputy WRTA Administrator and CFO Tom Coyne, the WRTA would have a remaining CARES Act balance of $16,017,58 and a federal American Rescue Plan Act funding balance of $2,812,085 at the end of the fiscal year.
The Worcester Regional Research Bureau advocated for a fare-free Worcester Regional Transit Authority in a May 2019 report amid declining ridership. The idea quickly gained momentum as a method to boost ridership, make the system more economically and socially equitable, and to help the environment.
The start of the COVID-19 pandemic the following year also led to the WRTA suspending fares in March 2020.
The WRTA also instituted rear-door boarding to ease congestion and allow greater social distancing. However, the WRTA also substantially reduced service in 2020 while people stayed home.
The advisory board has extended the fare-free rides multiple times, the last time until June 2024.
Four years removed from the stay-at-home phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authority saw a strong rise in ridership in the past year.
A presentation on WRTA administrator goals for fiscal 2025 states that fixed-route ridership for fiscal 2023, July 2022 to June 2023, was 33% higher than pre-COVID-19 ridership, at just under 4 million passenger trips.
Fixed-route ridership for fiscal 2019 was a little over three million while ridership plunged during the height of the pandemic for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, at 2,421,591 and 2,196,138 riders respectively. Fiscal 2022 ridership was slightly higher than fiscal 2019 ridership, 3,064,750 to 3,013,268 respectively.
Fiscal 2025 runs from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.
WRTA Advisory Board Chairman Doug Belanger said during the all-remote Thursday meeting that fiscal 2025 has a "balanced budget."
Goverment and business leaders praised the free-fare decision.
“Fare-free policies help more riders access public transportation, which benefits our residents, our employers, our economy and our environment. The WRTA is a leader in implementing a fare-free policy and other regions are following our lead,” state Sen. Robyn Kennedy, D-Worcester, said.
The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce has also advocated for continuing zero fare.
"We know from speaking daily with our member businesses of all sizes and from all sectors of our local economy that they are desperately trying to fill employment needs,” Timothy P. Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement also provided by the Zero Fare group.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: WRTA vote: Free bus rides in Worcester to continue into 2025
