THE MBTA BOARD of directors on Thursday approved a half-off fare for low-income riders between the ages of 26 and 64, with Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt tweaking the measure at the last minute to extend the discount to the transit authority’s premium paratransit service.
The amendment by Tibbits-Nutt was unusual in that she publicly overruled T staff, who had argued against including premium service in the discount, and did so without any debate over the extra cost.
The entire board backed her amendment and the low-income fare proposal, which should launch this summer assuming it receives budget funding at the State House. Advocates for seniors in the room stood up and erupted in applause after the measure passed, cheering Tibbits-Nutt for her action.
The low-income fare will apply to all of the MBTA’s network, including commuter rail. Details on enrollment and income verification are still being worked out, but the half-off fare will be available to anyone earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which is about $30,120 for a single person or $62,400 for a family of four.
The T’s paratransit program, called the RIDE, offers door-to-door rides to individuals within three-quarters of a mile of the transit authority’s fixed-route bus and subway service and also operates a separate premium service outside that area. The core service currently costs $3.80 a ride while the premium costs $5.60.
Michele Stiehler, manager of paratransit operations at the T, recommended not extending the low-income fare discount to premium service because it would put more pressure on a system that is already struggling with an inadequate number of drivers. As it is, she said, the low-income fare is expected to boost trips in the RIDE’s core service area by as much as 15 percent.
Stiehler said driver pay is being increased from $18 to $25 an hour for sedan drivers, which should help attract more staff, but she worried that the low-income fare could make it difficult to meet demand in the core service area, let alone in the premium service area.
Tibbits-Nutt said the T should never have adopted two separate service areas for the RIDE. She said RIDE users are tired of waiting for improved service at reasonable rates. She said one of her employees tried to sign up for the RIDE and it took nearly a month.
“That’s insane,” she said. “You can tell I’m very passionate about this. I’ve been waiting 10 years for this day. We have to do better for this population.”
Tibbits-Nutt formerly served on the board that preceded the current MBTA board and she advocated for years for a low-income fare with no success. Now she is transportation secretary, backed by a governor and a board that unanimously supports the idea.
Brian Kane, the executive director of the MBTA Advisory Board, which represents cities and towns in the T service area, said his organization voted to support the low-income fare but felt compelled to point out that there is no long-term funding for the initiative.
Gov. Maura Healey in her budget proposal for the coming fiscal year included $45 million collected from the millionaire tax to help pay for the low-income fare in its first year of operation. It’s unclear whether the House and Senate will support that level of funding in the coming fiscal year, let alone in future years. Kane pointed out that the T is looking at deficits in coming years of $650 million to $900 million.
He also said the RIDE is a major reason why the cost of the low-income fare is so high. According to data presented at the board meeting by the T, the cost of the low-income fare in terms of lost fare revenue and providing more induced trips will be about $25 million in the first year, rising to about $60 million in the fifth year.
Roughly half the cost is attributable to the RIDE because paratransit trips cost so much. Kane said the average cost to the T of a RIDE trip in the core service area is $104. Stiehler said the average cost to the T per trip in the core service area is $72, while the current fare is $3.80.
Stiehler and other T officials presented no information at the board meeting on how much the cost of the low-income fare would rise by including premium RIDE service, but officials later said the cost would be an extra $4 million, meaning the RIDE will account for well over half of the cost of the discount fare program.
Tibbits-Nutt is heading a 31-person task force charged with finding revenue to support the state’s transportation initiatives, including the low-income fare. Kane serves on the same task force.
