When Buses Are Free But Trains Aren’t
The efforts to eliminate fares for buses but not rail transit in Boston and Washington, DC, should raise questions about who those two modes are for, and what they mean.
Free ride: DC’s buses will go fare-less on July 1, 2023.
Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
The campaign for free transit fares in US cities has made it to the big leagues. The city council in Washington, DC, has decided to fund free bus fares within city limits. Several bus lines in the Boston area are also now free to ride, an initiative spearheaded by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
Smaller, less transit-intensive cities have been trying free fares for a while, but those agencies never got much of their revenue from fares anyway. In the biggest urban transit agencies, fares are a big source of funding, and that’s money that could have been spent on other things, like better service. As more public transit agencies consider the pros and cons of offering free or reduced-fare rides, this controversy is likely to continue, with eloquent arguments on both sides.