MBTA says fare hike likely for 2007

The MBTA plans to raise fares by approximately 25 percent in January 2007, the second fare increase in three years, as the transit agency deals with a worsening budget crunch, T officials said yesterday.

The amount of the fare increase is still being worked out, but could be similar to the most recent hike in January 2004, which raised the base subway fare from $1 to $1.25 and bus fare from 75 cents to 90 cents, said Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

Based on the projected 25 percent increase and rounded to the nearest nickel, the regular adult fare for buses would go from 90 cents to about $1.15 and for subway trains from $1.25 to about $1.55.

Grabauskas said that with flat ridership, increases in fuel costs, and $8.1 billion in debt, the T will have to pull about $4.9 million from its reserve funds, the second year in a row the agency has needed to tap its emergency funds.

Even then, ''we can't do it without a fare increase," he said. ''We have some bitter pills to swallow in the next year."

In New York City and Philadelphia, a subway trip or local bus ride is $2; fares on Northern California's Bay Area Rapid Transit vary by destination, with a trip from the Embarcadero in San Francisco to 24th Street Mission costing $1.40 one way. Metro bus service in Washington, D.C., costs $1.25, while subway service costs between $1.35 and $3.90, depending on destination.

The T's fare hike would depend in part on a revamped fare structure with the advent of automated fare collection, set to be fully installed on bus, trolley, and subway lines by the end of the year. For instance, the fares could be set based on the length of the trip.

''You've got to think outside the current box," Grabauskas said in an interview after disclosing details on the planned increase at a meeting of the Special Transportation Finance Commission, a board appointed by Governor Mitt Romney and legislative leaders to discuss the future of transportation financing in the Commonwealth.

''The bottom line: . . . We're shooting for a certain number around that 25 percent range in order to meet the needs that we've got," he said. ''But how that breaks out, I can't tell you yet. You can't just do the 25 percent and that's what it's going to be, because it's likely not going to be that."

Grabauskas has said he plans to use automated fare collection, which will eventually replace tokens with paper tickets and plastic cards, to do away with some of the T's ancient fare anomalies, such as the exit fares at the Quincy and Braintree stations on the Red Line and the free outbound trips on the above-ground Green Line.

He said the MBTA board of directors will be asked next month to start the fare increase process. The proposed fares will be announced sometime in the spring, public workshops and hearings will be held in June, and a final proposal will come sometime this summer. The T board could vote on the increase by November or December, and the increase would probably take effect in January 2007.

The T averages nearly 800,000 one-way trips -- on buses, subway, commuter rail, ferries, and other services -- each workday.

Jeremy Marin of the Sierra Club in Massachusetts, who opposed the last increase, said the T should improve service and reliability as it raises fares.

''We've all known that the fare hike was coming down the line for a while," he said. ''The general manager pointed out that as a single trip we're one of the least expensive but as a linked trip [on both bus and subway] we're one of the most expensive in the nation. So I think that the riders want to see something more for the fares that we're paying, and, quite frankly, we deserve something more."

Stephen J. Silveira, chairman of the Transportation Finance Commission, said it appeared that the T is doing all it can, given a bleak financial situation.

''I think using the new [automated fare collection] technology to create a fairer system is a great mandate," he said. ''A lot of things can be adjusted."

The fare increase is necessary in part to help with the potential cost of new contracts with 29 of the T's 30 labor unions. The current contracts expire on June 30.

Grabauskas said negotiations are going well. Asked about the possibility of a strike, he said: ''I don't know. I hope not."

One union, the Building and Trades union, is a year behind the other 29 and is set to receive a 4 percent wage increase in July. That will cost the T about $1 million, about 1 percent of its operating budget.

Grabauskas told the committee that over the next five years one-third of the MBTA workforce of 6,000 would become eligible to retire. Depending on how many leave, it could mean additional costs to hire and retrain new workers, plus paying pension and health costs for retirees. Retirees currently pay nothing for their health benefits, which increased 6 percent in the proposed budget.

No service cuts are proposed as part of the proposed operating budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Other highlights: