Free rides will halt on MBTA

For decades, T riders in the western suburbs have taken advantage of free outbound trips on the Green Line, if they boarded at an above-ground station.

But those free rides home, especially for thousands of fans after Red Sox games, end Monday with a fare increase that also gets rid of a bevy of historical MBTA fare anomalies, which also include exit fares at some Red Line stations.

T officials say the overhaul will make the fares equitable for all riders. "If you get on the train, you should know that it's $1.70, and it's the same as if you're on the Red, Green, Orange, Blue, or Silver Line," Daniel A. Grabauskas , general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, said yesterday. "It's a simplification of the system."

For longtime commuters, however, the free ride home is a perk they have enjoyed for as long as they can remember, and one they will give up grudgingly.

Some are worried less about the price increase and more about longer boarding times.

"I think I'll be more concerned with how much it slows down the outbound trains in the afternoon and evening," said Catherine Berkey , a medical researcher at the Harvard Medical School who has taken the Riverside branch for years. "At times, it's a terribly slow ride getting home."

The success of the new boarding system will depend largely on how quickly riders adapt to the system at above-ground stations, inbound and outbound.

In fliers being distributed on the Green Line this morning , the T offers a primer: Riders paying with cash should board at the front door and will be issued a receipt as proof of payment. Pass holders can enter at any door, but are encouraged to use the middle door, where passes will be scanned by a conductor holding a handheld validator. The T has 30 of the machines thus far, and expects to have 50 by next month.

On the D Line, riders are encouraged to tap their CharlieCard or to insert their CharlieTicket into validator machines at platforms, and to get a receipt to show while boarding at middle doors.

T officials also plan random, unannounced checks to ensure that each customer pays the fare. "If you do not have a valid fare, you may be cited by the MBTA Transit Police," the flier reads.

There has been little strong reaction to the change among the 204,000 Green Line passengers on an average workday.

Even at Boston University, where thousands of students will now have to pay for an outbound ride, few have complained about the new policies.

This may be because roughly 5,000 students use a semester pass -- more students than from all of the other schools and colleges in the area combined, a school spokesman said.

For some, rides on the Green Line could become cheaper under the new fare system.

Those who work downtown and board the D branch between Riverside and Chestnut Hill will save 85 cents. They now pay $4.25 round trip, but they will pay $3.40 after the fare increase.

Others will pay more. For example, commuters who get on the B branch at Boston College and get off before the trolley goes underground now pay $1.25 for the inbound ride and nothing outbound. Their round-trip ride will go up to $3.40 under the new fare structure.

The free outbound rides -- west of Kenmore on the B, C and D branches and west of Symphony on the E branch -- have been around so long that current T officials do not know exactly how they started. Local rail historians say zoned fares existed ever since the Green Line's Kenmore-to-Brookline Village run opened in 1847.

In the late 1970s or early 1980s, when the system began using the same streetcars that are still on the Mattapan Line, it proved faster for passengers to get on and off the two-door cars without outbound fares.

"If you don't build an entirely controlled system from the beginning . . . it gets interesting," said John Reading , editor of The Callboy, the monthly publication of the Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts. "We are betwixt and between, and we'll see what happens."

Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com