(The Boston Globe posted the following story by Thanassis Cambanis on its website on July 11.)
BOSTON — A coalition of community groups yesterday appealed to the MBTA’s board of directors to cancel a 25 percent fare increase that will raise ticket prices on buses, subways, and commuter rail beginning in January.
The T board approved the fare increase in March, but the antifare coalition, On the Move, argued that state law prohibits a price hike if ridership has fallen more than 4 percent. T officials say ridership has only fallen 3 percent, but the group says the T has not presented compelling evidence to support the assertion.
”The time to raise fares is not when ridership is decreasing,” said Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, program director at Alternatives for Community & Environment, a member of On the Move. ”A better way to increase revenue is to raise ridership and do that by improving service.”
Because of the MBTA’s fiscal woes, officials say they must raise fares, which are among the lowest in the nation. The fare hike will generate $25 million in additional revenue, according to MBTA General Manager Michael H. Mulhern Without it, he said, the T would be forced to cut service.
But On the Move, in announcing its ”Beat the Fare Increase” campaign yesterday, said the MBTA had not proven, as required by state law, that it had fully explored other ways of covering its budgetary shortfall. The group argued that a fare increase would further hurt ridership, increase pollution by encouraging people to drive rather than use mass transit, and would disproportionately hurt poor riders who have no other alternatives.
”We don’t believe they’ve exhausted all options for additional revenue,” Sugerman-Brozan said. ”Here they are facing a little bit of fiscal trouble, and they’re putting it on the backs of riders once again.”