T fare hike hot topic for tonight’s Revere meeting

REVERE – Bus and Blue Line train riders get their chance tonight to question Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials about proposed fare hikes.The hearing scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the Garfield Elementary School auditorium, 176 Garfield Ave., is part of the MBTA?s statewide effort to solicit public opinion on fare hikes through Sept. 4.?Your voice makes a difference in how the MBTA resolves its budget crisis. Please get involved,” the unsigned flier tells riders, who are advised to submit comments to [email protected] if they can?t make the hearings.The fare hikes would boost a single rapid transit ride cost from $2 to $2.50 and the standard local bus charge from $1.50 to $2. Ferry trips would cost $7, up from $6. A local bus pass cost would rise from $40 to $47 per month.On the commuter rail, a Zone 1 pass, which allows for only short distance rides, will cost $159 per month, up from $135 and a Zone 8 pass, which covers the longest trips, would cost $280 a month, up from $250.The Patrick administration is floating the latest round of fare hikes and alerting system users that service cuts are an option and alternative as the MBTA, freshly infused with $160 million from a sales tax hike, copes with budget imbalances tied to its huge debt load associated with capital spending.When they announced the proposed hikes in July, MBTA officials warned the transit agency “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 $1 out of every $5 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.The T hopes to cut costs as well as boost fares to dig its way out of financial difficulties. Service out of the Lynn bus garage will be eliminated after 9 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends. The cut impacts local bus route 426 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 has also proposed cutting weekday evening subway service by 50 percent between 8 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. and all weekday evening bus service after 8 p.m. by 50 percent.Routes “with high costs due to low ridership,” including the 431 from Lynn?s NeptuneTowers 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, could also be on the chopping block.Peabody would be eliminated from senior RIDE service provided by the MBTA and ride service would be reduced in Nahant and Lynnfield.