‘Every quarter counts’ as MBTA riders decry coming fare hike

LYNN – “Every quarter counts,” said bus rider Gregory James Thursday as he contemplated the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s plan to raise basic bus fares from $1.25 to $1.50.The 20 percent increase and similar hikes in subway and commuter rail fares will be tough for James, who has been unemployed for a year, to absorb. When he was working, James took a train or a bus into Boston every day.”The state spends enough money on stuff that is not as important as public transportation. To increase this hits a lot of people where it hurts,” he said.The MBTA, in announcing the increase, claimed Thursday it “faces one of the most serious financial crises in its history.” Money generated from fares provides a little less than half of the Authority’s revenue.The state Legislature voted in 2000 to give the MBTA one out of every five dollars generated by the state sales tax but the sagging economy has shrunk sales tax revenue. To cap it all off, the MBTA, by its own admission, has the highest debt burden of any transit agency in the nation: Nearly 30 percent of its operating budget goes to reduce a $5.2 billion debt.According to the proposal, fares for all modes of transportation would rise by an average 19.5 percent, raising $69 million to help the T reduce its debt load.The fare hike proposal comes even as the T is set to receive a $160 million infusion from an increased sales tax signed into law by the governor last month.Other options to increase revenue and cut costs could include cuts to service – the elimination of bus routes and reductions in weekend service, for example – but T officials say fare hikes would be the most cost-effective option overall and the least disruptive to T customers.Service out of the Lynn bus garage will be eliminated after 9 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends. The cut impacts the 426 bus route from Lynn’s Central Square to Haymarket via Cliftondale, the 441 and 442 bus routes from Marblehead to Haymarket, Downtown Crossing or Wonderland via Lynn’s Central Square and the Lynnway and the 455 bus route from the Salem Depot to Wonderland via Lynn’s Central Square.The MBTA also plans to cut weekday evening subway service by 50 percent between 8 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. and all weekday evening bus service after 8 p.m. by 50 percent.Riders who use electronic CharlieCards would see the lower end of the fare increase, with a single ride increasing from $1.70 to $2.00, while paper tickets and cash fares would climb from $2 to $2.50.It also proposing cuts in bus routes “with high costs due to low ridership” including the 431 from Lynn’s Neptune Towers to Central Square via Summer Street, the 435 route from the Liberty Tree Mall to Lynn’s Central Square via Peabody Square, and the 436 route from the Liberty Tree Mall to Lynn’s Central Square via Goodwin Circle.Gale Bowers is worried a potential cut in 436 route service will leave her without a ride to Union Hospital. She is also worried about weekend service cuts.”There’s a lot of people who work in Boston on the weekends. With the amount of riders they get, they shouldn’t have to increase the fare,” Bowers said.Peabody would be eliminated from senior ride service provided by the MBTA and ride service would be reduced in Nahant and Lynnfield. Wendy Cameron escorts Rob Hilliard almost daily from his home in Revere to Greater Lynn Senior Services in Lynn. Instead of cutting service, Cameron said the MBTA should reduce personnel costs.”The customer service people are unnecessary; they’re just standing around,” she said.The MBTA holds a Revere hearing on its proposed fare hikes and service cuts on Tuesday, Aug. 11, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., in the Garfield Elementary School auditorium.