WORCESTER - Paul F. Matthews has been named the new director of the Worcester Regional Research Bureau, an independent public policy research group.

The Worcester Regional Research Bureau has named Paul Matthews as its new executive director, it announced late Monday.

WORCESTER – In today’s daily 5 Things You Need to Know feature, ThisWeekinWorcester.com will explore five important items and stories that Worcester and Central Massachusetts residents should keep a close eye on.

WORCESTER — Riders and advocates at a public forum Thursday were all in favor of a fare-free Worcester Regional Transit Authority, seeing the proposal as a way to increase ridership and get people out of cars and into buses.

WORCESTER — Riders loved the notion.

“I think that would be a great idea,” said Ashley Knittle when asked Wednesday about the Worcester Research Bureau’s recommendation to make the Worcester Regional Transit Authority fare-free in order to increase ridership.

WORCESTER — Are low fare revenues a sign that the Worcester Regional Transit Authority needs to go fare-free? Or do low fare revenues mean the bus system needs a new fare-collection system?

TRASH SHOWDOWN: Well the plastic-bags-for-recycling debacle finally came to a head at council this week. Many, many people came out in opposition, most notably a particularly articulate 13-year-old, who made the case for the contradiction of using single-use plastic bags for recycling while working to ban single-use plastic bags from Worcester stores.

Nearly a year after approving the district’s new long-term strategic plan, the School Committee on Thursday heard Superintendent Maureen Binienda’s first progress report on her administration’s efforts to meet the document’s biannual benchmarks.

https://www.wrrb.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/VOB_06-19-19_TomQuinnWRRB.mp3

A team of MIT researchers today announced the results of a study that concluded that a discounted transit fare for low-income households could offer significant benefits to those households without necessarily contributing to peak-hour crowding in the MBTA system.