MBTA parking fees to increase

LYNN – Parking rates will double Nov. 15 at the Market Street commuter garage and three other area garages as part of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s effort to meet a recent round of expenses.
The daily parking rate at the Market Street garage and the Swampscott commuter parking lot will increase from $2 to $4. The daily rate at the Ocean Avenue and Beachmont parking lots in Revere will increase from $3 to $5.
Parking will remain free for students attending North Shore Commuter College across Broad Street from the Lynn garage. The 965-space garage was free until the MBTA established a $2 daily fare in January 2003.
The increase will raise nearly $12 million to help the transit agency pay for $58 million in expenses it has incurred since setting its current budget.
“Under severe financial stress, the T must generate the revenue
necessary to continue to provide safe and reliable service to the record numbers of people who are using public transit,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.
Most of the increase will pay for a labor arbitration award related to collective bargaining agreements with MBTA employees. The rest of the increase covers the MBTA’s obligations to provide commuter rail service.
The agency spent money this summer renovating Blue Line subway station platforms and it is working through the fall to replace four-car trains with six-car trains.
The longer trains will help handle an increase in MBTA ridership spurred, in part, by gas prices that rose over the summer.
State Rep. Robert Fennell and fellow legislators worked with college officials and the MBTA to provide free parking for students who said they enter and exit the garage two or three times a day to commute from school to jobs or child care obligations.