Boston expands fare-free bus programme following pilot

These three routes are some of the routes with the highest ridership throughout the City of Boston. Route 23 serves over 100,000 monthly riders, runs past Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, the Grove Hall Branch of the Boston Public Library and various places of worship.

The route also intersects with Columbus Avenue, home to the first centre-running bus lane in New England, demonstrating the potential to combine fare-free transit with modern transit infrastructure to reduce local air pollution, ease congestion and speed up service.

Increase in ridership

After fares were eliminated in August 2021, Route 28 saw ridership increase to more than 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels with over 12,000 riders every day, making it the most popular route in the system. Route 29 intersects with Route 28 and runs past Egleston Square Branch of the Boston Public Library, and several Boston Housing Authority developments, including the Franklin Field Apartments and the Doris Bunté Apartments.

“We were pleased to collaborate with the City on the Route 28 pilot and now to expand the programme to include these additional routes for the next two years,” said MBTA general manager Steve Poftak. 

“As we work to ensure every resident knows about the programme, we hope this is just the beginning of access to fare-free public transit in Boston”

The Boston Transportation Department has been working with the MBTA to manage the 28 bus pilot programme that was first launched in August last year, including partnering on a comprehensive evaluation of the Route 28 bus pilot.

The evaluation includes analysis of ridership and service reliability data as well as interviews with bus riders to get their views on the benefits of the pilot. The analysis suggests that by enabling all-door boarding, fare-free service reduced dwell time – the amount of time the bus stopped to allow passengers to board – decreased by more than 20 per cent.

The expansion of this programme will provide the City of Boston, MBTA and other transit partners the opportunity to measure the benefits of fare-free bus service, such as increased ridership, faster buses, less traffic, and business development, over a longer period of time. The duration of the programme will also allow the City to make sure every resident knows about the fare-free service and provides an opportunity for residents to integrate riding the bus into their day-to-day routines.