Panelists at a virtual forum Monday night brainstormed how to fund, implement, and recruit support for a fare-free Worcester Regional Transit Authority, saying now is the time for free bus service in Worcester.

Since the Worcester Regional Research Bureau first proposed fare-free bus service, the reaction from most transportation experts and officials has been the same: Sounds great, but how do we pay for it?

WORCESTER — The Worcester Regional Transit Authority will remain fare free at least until the end of the year, as advisory board members worried that reinstituting fares may be premature if COVID-19 surges in the fall.

WORCESTER — Looking to address the digital divide that exists in the city, the City Council Urban Technologies, Innovation and Environment Committee Thursday night called for the establishment of a task force to look at the feasibility of implementing a municipally owned broadband network.

WORCESTER — After the district had to scramble this summer to provide internet to families to support its remote learning model, a school panel on Thursday voted to ask city leaders to look into bringing municipal broadband to Worcester.

WORCESTER - A Worcester Regional Research Bureau forum examining the possibility of municipal broadband internet service began Thursday afternoon with participants testing their download speeds.

WORCESTER — The economy is in tatters.

WORCESTER – Worcester should seriously consider establishing its own municipal broadband network that could lead to faster, more affordable, more equitably distributed internet access, the Research Bureau suggested in a new report released Tuesday.

WORCESTER — Worcester Regional Transit Authority Administrator Dennis J. Lipka envisions a future with more dispensers of hand sanitizer, enhanced cleaning of buses, and a lot of uncertainty as the bus system tries to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

WORCESTER — Occupancy rates for downtown office space are on the rise, according to a report by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau.