As it moves toward a new way of boarding passengers on buses and the Green Line, the MBTA is starting to address the touchy subject of fare evasion.

 Currently, passengers board at the front door of a bus or Green Line car (as it travels above ground) and pay their fares in front of the driver. But a new cashless fare collection system under development will allow passengers to board at any door and tap on at card readers. The approach is expected to speed up boarding and cut trip times by 10 percent, but it raises the question about what to do about people who hop on board and don’t pay.

 “One of the challenges and one of the risks with all-door boarding is the potential for an increase in fare evasion,” said Lynsey Heffernan, the acting assistant general manager for policy and strategic development, at Monday’s meeting of the Fiscal and Management Control Board.

 The expectation is that the T will have to hire fare inspectors who will spot-check riders to make sure they have paid. That won’t be easy in the potentially crowded confines of a bus or Green Line car and it raises a host of issues about selective enforcement.

 “This is not going to be an easy job,” said Joseph Aiello, the chair of the control board.

 The Legislature set the process in motion last month by passing a transportation bond bill that decriminalized fare evasion and authorized the T to hire a “civilian fare verification team” and issue regulations lowering fines to an appropriate level. 

 Under prior law, only transit police could issue citations for fare evasion and the fines were $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second offense, and $600 for the third offense. T officials say relatively few citations have been issued in the past – about 2,000 to 4,000 a year.

 The previous citation system was paper-based; the new system will be digitized and capable of tracking patterns of enforcement by race, location, and other factors.

 The T is planning to issue draft regulations shortly, solicit feedback from the control board, then take public comment on them. The T hopes to have new regulations in place by this summer and then begin hiring a fare verification team in time for when the new fare collection system is deployed two years from now. 

Heffernan said the regulations may have to be tweaked again when the system is deployed to take into account changes that take place during the rollout. The T is already installing card readers in some subway stations and buses for testing purposes only and to iron out technical kinks.

BRUCE MOHL

FROM COMMONWEALTH

The MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board takes on its critics, calling a Sunday Boston Globe editorial “uninformed” and suggesting attacks on its refusal to restore all service cuts were off-base.

US Rep. Richard Neal touts the COVID relief legislation Congress is writing in an appearance at the State House with Gov. Charlie Baker.

Former state senator Ben Downing launches a run for governor with a heavy focus on addressing the inequities surfaced by the coronavirus pandemic.

A website developer home on maternity leave helps individuals find appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations.

Opinion: Lisa Gurgone and Paul Hattis urge hospitals to partner up with home health care workers.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

Is Charlie Baker’s reputation for managerial chops undeserved as the troubled vaccine rollout becomes the latest high-profile miscue on his watch? (Boston Globe)

The Massachusetts Republican Party calls for the resignation of David Ismay, an undersecretary of environmental affairs in the Republican governor’s administration, over comments he made about what it will take to achieve state goals for lower carbon emissions. (Boston Herald) 

After years of lobbying from Gov. Charlie Baker, his Housing Choice legislation is now law. Will it generate new housing? (Boston Globe) 

Massachusetts lawmakers have lots of proposals for how to improve the state’s rocky vaccine rollout. (MassLive)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

Joan Vennochi says Marty Walsh is leaving the city with a boatload of problems, starting with his ill-considered handling of the police commissioner’s post. (Boston Globe) 

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

All UMass Amherst students are told to self-sequester for the next two weeks because of a surge in COVID-19 cases. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Nine sites are providing free coronavirus testing for anyone working at a Bay State child care facility. (Herald News) 

Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital are voting whether to strike due to inadequate staffing levels while caring for COVID patients. (Telegram & Gazette)

At Eastfield Mall in Springfield, elderly residents were waiting in long lines in the freezing cold, without social distancing, to get COVID-19 vaccines. (MassLive)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

What’s ahead this week as the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump begins. (Associated Press)

ELECTIONS

Minorities sue the city of Worcester, alleging its system of electing all at-large School Committee members discriminates against them. A similar lawsuit generated change in Lowell in 2017. (Associated Press) More on the lawsuit from the Telegram & Gazette, which reports that half of Worcester residents are non-white, yet the school committee is all white. 

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger launches an investigation of former president Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure his office to reverse the state’s election results. (Reuters)

Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito have been doing some fundraising, but their combined campaign kitty still lags the nearly $3 million that Attorney General Maura Healey has banked. (Boston Herald) 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

A federal judge dismisses most of a lawsuit alleging that Whole Foods discriminated against employees by barring them from wearing Black Lives Matter masks at work. (WBUR)

The Boston area office market is getting a makeover as biotech firms move in and transform the buildings into lab space. (Boston Globe)

An innovative program is offering job training to those with lower educational backgrounds, and they only pay for it if they land a better paying job as a result. (Boston Globe) 

Cape Cod Chamber CEO Wendy Northcross is retiring after 24 years as the chamber’s leader. (Cape Cod Times)

EDUCATION

 UMass Amherst has 434 active COVID-19 cases on campus, and 354 students are facing possible discipline for breaking the safety rules related to COVID-19. The town of Amherst extends emergency orders, including a 9:30 p.m. curfew. (MassLive)

TRANSPORTATION

The Pittsfield City Council narrowly defeats a proposal to do away with a reconfiguration of North Street that reduced the number of travel lanes and created bike lanes. (Berkshire Eagle)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Globe columnist Marcela Garcia says the state needs a different plan than just rebuilding a new women’s prison to replace rundown MCI-Framingham. 

More than half of Department of Correction employees have refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, which has been available to them since January 18. (GBH)

Due to problems with the breathalyzer test, around 6,100 Western Massachusetts residents with drunk driving convictions will be notified that they can retry their cases. (MassLive)

Twitter users thought they spotted the head of a neo-Nazi group in photos of rioters breaching the US Capitol on Jan. 6. In fact, it was a pizza delivery driver from Massachusetts, Brian McCreary, who is now facing federal charges. McCreary had tried to run against US Rep. Richard Neal but failed to gather the required signatures. (MassLive)

MEDIA

Retiring Washington Post editor Marty Baron talks to the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner about the paper’s shift to become a national and international publication under Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. 

PASSINGS

Texas Republican Rep. Ron Wright becomes the first member of Congress to die following a COVID-19 diagnosis. (Politico)