THE FAIRMOUNT, Readville, and Hyde Park commuter rail stations are all within roughly two miles of each other, yet the price to travel into Boston from each station varies dramatically.
From Fairmount, the one-way charge is $2.40, or $90 for a monthly pass. From the Hyde Park station, just four-tenths of a mile away from Fairmount, the charge is $6.50, or $214 for a monthly pass. From Readville, which is 1.6 miles from the other two stations, the one-way fare is $7, or $232 for a monthly pass.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Rep. Rob Consalvo of Hyde Park. “People in Hyde Park feel strongly that if you live in Hyde Park you should pay one fare.”
Consalvo admits he’s been complaining about the fare discrepancy since he was first elected to the Boston City Council in 2002. But with the T facing pressure from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to do away with all fares (starting with buses), and transportation advocates pushing the T to offer low-income riders a lower fare, Consalvo and many of his colleagues in the Legislature and at the city level don’t want the T to forget about the commuter rail fare anomalies.
Consalvo and Sen. Mike Rush of West Roxbury recently sent a letter on the issue to MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak, as did Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, who called the situation “a deep fare inequity.”
Louijeune said she would like to address the fare situation in Hyde Park, but ultimately she would like to see all commuter rail stations within Boston moved into the lowest-priced Zone 1A category, where the one-way fare is $2.40.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu made the same pitch in 2018, calling for lower Zone 1A fares at stations in Hyde Park, West Roxbury, and Roslindale.
MBTA staff last month briefed the agency’s board of directors on various fare reduction options, including eliminating fares on buses, offering a discounted fare to low-income riders, cutting commuter rail fares, and moving more commuter rail stations into Zone 1A. The staff report favored a discounted fare as the best policy option but questioned whether the T could afford it.
Moving more commuter rail stations into Zone 1A was criticized as a “blunt instrument that delivers significant savings to high-income riders who do not need it.” The T didn’t look at the cost of moving all Boston commuter rail stations into Zone 1A; instead, the agency estimated it would cost $41 million to move 18 Gateway City commuter rail stations into the lowest-priced zone.
Instead of moving stations into Zone 1A, the staff report suggested a better approach might be reducing the gap between the jump between Zone 1A fares (Fairmount) and Zone 1 (Hyde Park) and Zone 2 (Readville) fares. The staff report estimated lowering the Zone 1 fare from $6.50 to $4.25 and reducing the Zone 2 fare from $7 to $6 would cost the T $9.1 million while boosting ridership by 206,000.
Louijeune said fare changes are needed to get people out of cars and to address transit inequities. She worries about the T’s willingness to change. “There’s generally resistance to doing anything differently,” she said.
