Worcester Buses Will Remain Free, But Not For Long

WORCESTER, MA — A pandemic-era policy of not collecting bus fares in the Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA) system will remain in place, but agency leaders are looking forward to collecting fares soon due to budget concerns.

The WRTA advisory board met Thursday morning to discuss whether to continue with a fare collection suspension, a policy put in place last spring during the first wave of coronavirus. Board member and Worcester City Councilor Gary Rosen asked for a vote to keep the policy in place until April 1. However, the board didn't vote at all, instead deferring to WRTA Director Dennis Lipka's desire to keep the policy in place until March 1.

The decision came after a long discussion over WRTA's finances during the pandemic, and how the agency can use federal stimulus money to plug holes in the budget. At the same, members of the group Zero Fare WRTA attended the meeting to push for a permanent no-fare policy.

According to Lipka, WRTA has about $37 million in stimulus dollars to use for expenses related to the pandemic — including fare losses. The system has been running at about 50 percent of normal capacity recently, Lipka said, and hasn't charged fares since March 2020.

Lipka said the system will need to use between $5 and $6 million in stimulus funding over the next few years to make up for pandemic losses, and so he wasn't comfortable extending the fare policy past March. He also said that stimulus money can only be applied to pandemic-related expenses, not a new policy change like zero-fare.

"We're in what amounts to be a position where we're scrambling to make all of our revenue projections," Lipka said.

But free-fare advocates told the board that local residents are also scrambling for revenue. Worcester Health and Human Services Commissioner Dr. Mattie Castiel said transit is a public health issue because it allows residents to get to work, school, medical appointments and to buy food.

"Our most vulnerable communities will have basic access to their most basic needs" with continued free transit, she said.

Worcester Regional Research Bureau (WRRB) research Tom Quinn — who authored a 2019 study showing the benefits of free transit — highlighted that a return to fare collection could mean a drop in ridership, and thus a drop in WRTA revenue. The WRRB report said eliminating fares would cost between $2 and $3 million per year.

The WRTA board will revisit the pandemic fare policy at a Feb. 21 meeting. The board will also hold a future meeting focused solely on whether stimulus money can be used to pay for a longer zero-fare period.