This month, the MBTA announced service, fare and enforcement changes that T-riders should be aware of. Please read the information below to learn more.
- MBTA will begin fare checks beginning September 8. Fare Engagement Representatives will begin issuing formal warnings and citations to riders who have not tapped at a fare gate or farebox. More information is available at mbta.com/FareCheck.
- The MBTA recently announced service changes in September on the Green, Orange, Blue, and Fitchburg lines. Transit Ambassadors and MBTA staff will be available on-site to offer information and assistance during these service changes. Riders are encouraged to subscribe to T-Alerts or to follow the MBTA on X @MBTA, @MBTA_CR, and @MBTA_CR_Alerts for up-to-date service information.
- The MBTA Make Way for Buses Program will use automated enforcement cameras to ticket vehicles illegally blocking bus lanes and bus stops. This program is designed to keep buses moving and improve accessibility. Ticketing in select locations will begin this Fall. View a recording of the public hearing.
- All MBTA subway lines and eight frequent bus routes are now offering extended service on Friday and Saturday. Trip end times for these lines and routes will be about one hour later than current service end times. More information on the MBTA website.
All good news, thanks.
Thanks for keeping us informed.
Hi Will, related to fare enforcement, do you know if the fare boxes on the train back doors will start recognizing monthly T passes? When above ground trains are crowded it has always been common to enter via the back door (even more so now that there are fare boxes there), but to my knowledge they do not recognize monthly T passes. As a result, it makes it seem like someone is not paying even if they hold a valid monthly T pass because their pass will not be recognized via back door entry. I hope someone will correct me if this has been fixed. Thanks for this update!
We can check into this. I know that is the long-term plan, but I am not sure on status.
Great question. Charlie Card fare boxes at back doors only exist right now on the Green Line. The MBTA is actively working on incorporating this on buses.
Annie Mazzola
District Director
Office of Senator Will Brownsberger
While I still believe fare enforcement is a mistake versus free public transit (we will pay more on enforcement than we would just making them free), great news to hear bus lane enforcement is being implemented. This will significantly reduce headway times for the 66 in our neighborhood.
Well if this doesn’t work, fare evasion will have to become a jailable offense.
Am I, legally speaking, supposed to stay on the second lane from the curb and cross the bus lane to make a right turn, or am I permitted at the intersection to make the turn from the bus lane? Even with the greatest of care, crossing over the bus lane to make the turn at the intersection comes with heightened danger because of the natural blind spot to car and bike traffic.
Many, perhaps most, bus lanes are explicitly marked to permit for right turning vehicles close to the intersection. In other cases, I think the common sense rule — do what is safest — would generally be respected.
/w.
In addition to the Senator’s response, I would like to add that automated camera enforcement ticketing will NOT include moving vehicles in bus lanes (“non-parked”). Only stopped or parked vehicles will be subject to enforcement.
Annie Mazzola
District Director
Office of Senator Will Brownsberger
Suppose I pay my fare going through a station turnstyle, and a blue-polo-shirt person says I didn’t. How can I prove that I did? Not three months later in court…on the spot, right there in the T station? It’s that blue shirt’s word against mine. Where’s the proof that one of us is not telling the truth? Same question in regard to me allegedly using someone else’s card, or them using mine. And who will have physical or electronic/digital posession of any real evidence? Who will be allowed to have access to that evidence? Where is the detailed study….preferably published in a reputable professional journal… showing that this kind of program to catch/deter fare evaders will not cost the T more than the fare evaders already cost them? I’m not necessarily opposed to such a program. But I’ve learned in the course of a fairly long life to be extremely skeptical about bureaucracies that try to save some nickels and dimes by cracking down on the public, rather than catching some of their own people taking big-bucks bribes. A long time ago I was served a piece of the then-General Manager’s birthday cake, just a few months before he was put on trial and sent to state prison for taking cash under the table. (Actually his successor as the T’s General Manager apparently found the money in an envelope right on top of the guy’s desk, but the customary phrase is “under the table”, so I used that as the default wording.) If safeguards are in place to protect the riding public from abuses, and if it will result in net savings or efficiency for the T, I’m OK with it.
Perhaps the Fare Engagement Representatives should be retitled to be Fare Engagement and Assessment Representatives (FEAR).
Hi Will, thank you for forwarding this information.
I, like many seniors, have a senior MBTA card which has expired, and also have a few older Charlie Cards with credit on them. I would like to get these all straightened out. I’m a bit out of date, with the pandemic, etc. so I would also like to know what the process is for boarding, and what the fares are now, and how to pay on the Commuter Rail. Would it be possible to have a MBTA rep come to our area, give a presentation and register folks for new cards? At one time, these cards could only be obtained at Downtown Crossing (but one has to get there first!).
Thanks again,
Nancy
Our office would be glad to help you renew your Senior Charlie Card. Let’s connect about this and your interest in having an MBTA Rep come out to your area. Please email me at: anne.mazzola@masenate.gov or give me a call at 857-207-8738.
You can pay for MBTA buses and trains by tapping your Charlie Card, Charlie Ticket or paying cash on the fare box as you enter. You can also pay by tapping a credit/debit card or mobile wallet on the “Tap to Ride” reader beside the fare box.
To pay for an MBTA Commuter Rail ride you can purchase a fare at a vending machine using cash or card, buying a digital ticket on the MBTA mTicket app, using your credit/debit card, or buying a paper Charlie Ticket at a station. You can also pay the ticket handler onboard the train.
Bus and train drivers can help you as you enter if you have any questions.
A breakdown of fares can be found here:
https://www.mbta.com/fares/bus-fares
Thank you for your comments and questions!
Annie Mazzola
District Director
Office of Senator Will Brownsberger
Thank you for your diligent work to improve public transit in the greater Boston area! Europe and many areas of the United States already used automated traffic enforcement (cameras), which now has a long and successful track record of encouraging compliance and making pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers all safer. I hope use of cameras in bus lanes will help Massachusetts drivers become more comfortable with general use of this important technology.
You have to be kidding me!! I’ve lived my whole life in Boston and taking Public Transportation and never remember it ever running correctly, delays, delays and out of service that’s all I know and I see them announcing them daily on the news. Waverley Sq in Belmont is an absolute disgrace!! It was so horrible 10 years ago they were going to close it but instead extended it 10 years which will be up this coming year. They did absolutely nothing except let it crumble. Never even made it ADA accessible. The MBTA is failing and they forcing us to bail them out with these Communities Act (Unconstitutional). They just want to scam more money. Does sound good but experience says otherwise. Our transportation is shameful to European Transit. Maybe they should consult with Disney regarding a Monorail System as they have many in Europe, they are amazing.
Yes, I’ll remember that when they’re installing them in Belmont. Waverley definitely needs something to prevent more of our residents from getting hit and killed in crosswalks, especially our children and Elementary Students at The Butler. I wonder if they’ll install them at The Belmont Country Club for all the golf carts crossing ? Can you explain to me how camera’s will prevent and make people safer?? It’s a camera not a real person, the camera’s are for after the accident to view, it won’t stop it from happening. They would be helpful in other capacities but not for preventing a tragedy. Where’s the logic/common sense? Just another excuse to get funds to get lost somewhere along the way!!!
Or, hear me out, we could just stop charging fares.
Free the T!
Thanks, Will. This update is helpful.
I am personally glad to know of these measures, realizing that they will ultimately help improve the reliability and safety of MBTA service (having experienced more than my fill of the types of unreliable “service” others have complained about over the years). The thing that these measures will *not* address, which I continue to see happening quite frequently, is the issue of drivers not consistently collecting fares (in particular, inconsistency in calling out people who sneak on through rear doors without going to a fare collection device to pay) and/or fare boxes being out of order so that drivers can’t collect fares.
So, attention also needs to be given to proper maintenance of the fare collection devices. I’ll elaborate more on the driver-related comments below.
For many years I used the C branch of the green line to commute and got onto the trolleys at Cleveland Circle (the origin stop for inbound service). It was a regular pattern for drivers (who were often all huddled around a small hut adjacent to the platform, chatting and hanging out) to get into the train and start everything up and then load waiting passengers in a hurry as though they were already late starting their route. They let everyone who was already waiting on the platform in without paying (which could mean anywhere from a handful to a couple dozen people). In a subset of those instances, if it took a while for the fare box to “warm up,” people could get in for free at one or two of the subsequent stops before people started having to pay or swipe a pass. These days I take the green line from several stops into the route, but I still have fairly frequent commutes when a green line trolley fare box doesn’t work, meaning that everyone gets a free ride inbound for that journey, and the B branch drivers are not any more consistent than the C branch drivers about calling out people who get on in the back without paying. Given the dire need for better funding of the T to help fund improvements and keep it running well, this is exasperating to see. I hope this factor won’t be overlooked amidst all the other efforts to improve things. The blue shirt people might help against those who feel like it’s okay for them to get a free ride by choosing to get on in the back and go right to a seat. They won’t help with the other aspects of the problem that are at least as prevalent.
Whatever happened to the proposal for a new bus line between Waltham and Arlington?
Hi Mary,
The short answer is that the “Better Bus Project” slipped further out in time while the T focused on improving core service. They have made great progress towards that goal, but they are not to the point where they are ready to add routes. The new Waltham-to-Arlington-via-Belmont Route 54 still shows in their plans. They say that they are going to make service improvements between 2024 and 2029. They’ve confirmed by email that they do not have a more specific date yet for this service.
Stopping fare evasion is a joke. I see the red shirts allow people to sneak in behind people, including myself, regularly. I’ve seen them actually use their own passes to allow others to go through. People also use the elevator at Park Street to access a lone unmonitored turnstile to just push their way through, if not waive something around the doors at the sensor to open it. With prices going up on everything, I’d love a discount too.