MBTA board OKs fare hike: Third increase in six years
By Casey Ross
Boston Herald Reporter
Friday, November 10, 2006 - Updated: 01:36 AM EST

Dismissing the objections of Gov.-elect Deval Patrick, MBTA officials voted yesterday to hike subway and bus fares for the third time in six years, hitting riders with a sharp cost increase as the agency battles deep financial troubles.
Patrick was quick to respond, saying in a statement, “Raising the fares is the wrong answer. This places the fiscal burden on workers, students and tourists using public transit.”
Starting Jan. 1, subway fares will increase by 45 cents, to $1.70, and bus fares will jump by 35 cents, to $1.25. Riders will have to pay even more - $2 and $1.50, respectively - if they don’t use new plastic Charlie Cards, slated to be distributed next month.
Angry riders at yesterday’s T board meeting called the new fare increase a “travesty,” accused T directors of failing to work with the Legislature and promised political retribution.
“We’re going to cause you some pain, some political pain,” rider Jeff Booth bluntly told the board.
But T General Manager Dan Grabauskas said he has had repeated conversations with lawmakers to try to fix the budget woes. “There has been no secret made of our problems,” he said.
T officials said the agency is facing a $70 million deficit next year and chose to raise fares rather than make dramatic service cuts.
“As uncomfortable and unpleasant as it was to raise fares and be in that meeting today, if we were cutting a substantial number of bus routes and frequency of service, it would have been an ugly meeting,” Grabauskas said.
Fare hikes have become a regular occurrence since 2000, when the T implemented a funding plan that to date has failed to produce badly needed revenues. The agency is mired in $8 billion in debt, by far the largest tab of any transit agency in the country.
Meanwhile, the T’s largest revenue source - state sales tax contributions - has generated average annual boosts of about 1 percent, a far cry from the 3 percent expected.
Yesterday’s increase is timed to coincide with the completion of work to install the T’s new $200 million automated fare system, which replaces tokens with paper tickets and Charlie Cards. The T will begin a campaign Dec. 4 to distribute the new Charlie Cards and educate customers about savings they offer. But critics fear the campaign will not reach people in low-income areas.