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Study: Rider, Revenue Ripples Seen From Low-Income MBTA Fare (Mass.)
State House News Service ^ | February 24, 2020

Posted on 02/24/2020 5:24:08 PM PST by ConservativeStatement

An income-based MBTA fare option could attract tens of thousands of new rapid transit and bus riders and could prompt hundreds of thousands more trips on the RIDE paratransit service, according to an ongoing T study.

If the MBTA set the qualifying income at 200% of the federal poverty level, between 50,000 and 90,000 new commuters would ride the subway or bus every year, MBTA Deputy Director of Policy and Strategic Planning Lynsey Heffernan told the T's board Monday.

(Excerpt) Read more at wbur.org ...


TOPICS: Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: income; massachusetts; mbta; publictransportation
More people on packed public transportation and those who work have to pay more to subsidize large pensions and assist those who are "low-income"? Is that the summary?
1 posted on 02/24/2020 5:24:08 PM PST by ConservativeStatement
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To: ConservativeStatement

2 posted on 02/24/2020 5:28:14 PM PST by nascarnation
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To: nascarnation

Ohhhhhhh.....

BELOW 3 feet.

I thought it was WITH 3 feet.

I was gonna let my cousin Janice know.


3 posted on 02/24/2020 5:33:24 PM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: nascarnation

If it is free...more people will use it. Makes sense to me. And it is already there anyhow. With zero riders or 100% capacity, it is already there. Maybe they could get high school service club kids to volunteer to clean the cars and haul away the garbage. This looks like a workable utopia. I hope NY. NY. adopts such a policy. It is NY isn’t it.?!


4 posted on 02/24/2020 5:38:25 PM PST by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: ConservativeStatement

So low income riders will somehow pay for the increased operating costs?
The increased costs include more wear and, new equipment without the ticket revenues.
That’s not going to work.


5 posted on 02/24/2020 6:00:26 PM PST by Adder ("Can you be more stupid?" is a question, not a challenge.)
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To: ConservativeStatement

I assume that none of these geniuses have ever successfully completed any business courses.


6 posted on 02/24/2020 6:10:46 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet
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To: Trumpet 1

“If it is free...more people will use it.”

And operating at near capacity, they can make up for the loss with the additional volume of riders.


7 posted on 02/24/2020 6:18:51 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
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To: RetiredTexasVet
I assume that none of these geniuses have ever successfully completed any business courses.

Well, the positive reporting on the study comes from WBUR.

That's Boston University Radio, an NPR station. BU's the place that AOC got her economics education from.

Never mind the business end, from the sociological POV and looking at the BART stories, all the MBTA is going to do is make it cheaper for the ne'er-do-wells to raid the formerly reasonably "safe" areas.

And terrorize the full fare paying riders.

8 posted on 02/24/2020 6:20:35 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: ConservativeStatement

Is Charley still riding?


9 posted on 02/24/2020 6:24:39 PM PST by saminfl
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Well maybe just charge everyone 25 cents. Two bits. Boston then New York. And eventually every transit system. The two bit solution.


10 posted on 02/24/2020 6:43:44 PM PST by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: saminfl

Yes. George O’Brian didn’t get enough votes!


11 posted on 02/24/2020 6:44:26 PM PST by Portcall24
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To: saminfl

Yes and he will never return.


12 posted on 02/24/2020 6:47:33 PM PST by princeofdarkness (Leftists. Their only response to failure is to double down.)
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To: ConservativeStatement
If the MBTA set the qualifying income at 200% of the federal poverty level, between 50,000 and 90,000 new commuters would ride the subway or bus every year

Figure sounds dubious, yet if it was free even more would, or if the government gave everyone free money.... The point is that getting more people to ride the T every year is not going to solve the problem of the MBTA running a $5.0 billion in outstanding debt, resulting in about 25 percent of the MBTA's annual budget going toward paying that down.

With about 380,900,000 people riding the MBTA each year, what kind of difference will 50,000 new commuters make, when they pay even less than others who pay less than what is needed for the T to run within its budget without a deficit.

13 posted on 02/24/2020 7:48:34 PM PST by daniel1212 ( Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
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To: Trumpet 1
...If it is free...more people will use it...

The ones who will use it are marauding bands of "teens" who will have new vistas of fertile territory for smash and grab crime open up for them.

14 posted on 02/24/2020 8:17:43 PM PST by CurlyDave
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To: RetiredTexasVet
I assume that none of these geniuses have ever successfully completed any business courses.

Not to many years ago, during the transition from Democrat Patrick Deval (Small Deval) to Republican Charlie Backer (Tall Deval), a left over former Small Deval appointment, Beverley Scott, was the MBTA General Manager. Her engineering and business skills were wrapped up in her Political Science PhD. Then came the February snow. The snow bound up the inner city transit trains for a month. The MBTA is a political sewer filled with hacks and government lifers.

15 posted on 02/24/2020 9:22:02 PM PST by LoneRangerMassachusetts (Behind enemy lines)
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To: ConservativeStatement
you'll see...the people who don't work will ride the buses all day....the homeless...the druggies...they'll destroy suburban malls and parks....

and then the govt will scream that they need more property tax money for this tremendous increase in people riding the bus, isn't it wonderful.....

16 posted on 02/24/2020 9:24:32 PM PST by cherry
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To: Adder

don’t forget the poop and the grafitti bound to be left behind by this new bunch of “riders”....


17 posted on 02/24/2020 9:26:40 PM PST by cherry
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To: ConservativeStatement

We lose money on every sale.
But we make it up in volume!


18 posted on 02/25/2020 7:24:50 AM PST by Do_Tar (I wish I was kidding.)
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