Worcester’s Transit Agency Considers Ditching the Farebox

Full and original article posted on Streets Blog Mass

A new study suggests the public benefits of dramatically increasing transit ridership would outweigh the costs of lost fare revenue.

The Worcester Regional Research Bureau, an independent nonprofit public policy organization, has published a new report calling on Worcester’s regional transit agency, the WRTA, to eliminate fare payments on its buses, arguing that the public benefits of dramatically increasing transit ridership would outweigh the agency’s financial costs from lost fare revenue.

The WRTA collects about $3 million a year in fares from its 23 fixed routes and from its paratransit services. That revenue only covers about 14 percent of the agency’s operating expenses, and has declined in recent years along with ridership.

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