City Councilors Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale and Mattapan) and Michelle Wu (at large) hope to hold a hearing at which MBTA officials can explain the differing fares for commuter-rail stations within Boston city limits - in particular at stations south of Forest Hills.
In a request to the entire council for permission to hold a hearing, the two point to differences in fares between Roslindale Village and Forest Hills, even though the two are just a quarter-mile apart, and between Fairmount and Readville stations.
The cheaper fares at some stations are causing issues with parking they say - commuters are flooding the Fairmount-station area, unfairly burdening nearby residents, while the Readville parking lots remain largely empty. They add the Forest Hills parking lots are swamped by people looking to avoid the higher fares at stations such as Roslindale Village.
"The zone fares in southwest Boston are screwy, at best," McCarthy said.
The council considers their hearing request at its regular Wednesday meeting, which starts today at noon in the council's fifth-floor chambers in City Hall.
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Comments
Needham is the new Riverside?
By Sock_Puppet
Fri, 10/02/2015 - 4:21pm
Except with better trains? It makes a lot of sense - they're both about the same distance from downtown Boston. Red extends to Braintree, Green to Riverside, why not Orange to Needham?
Doesn't the MBTA have an
By anon
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 11:53am
Doesn't the MBTA have an advisory board that can address this sort of thing?
Where do people get the idea...
By Bob Leponge
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 12:39pm
... that fares should correlate in any way with distance traveled?
There was a while when airfare Boston to San Francisco was about double airfare from Boston to Los Angeles, even though both are about the same distance.
Well, why not?
By anon
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 12:48pm
You can look at public transportation pricing in a million ways. To me the basic assumptions of system pricing should be based on the concept that the MBTA exists to help the public move around the region and that the costs of doing business in any part of metro Boston is the same (meaning specifically there are no tax/tariffs/fees involving in say, using a train in Newton vs. Chelsea vs. Boston). Based on that, outside of specific issues (providing service to historically neglected communities (Orange line vs. silver line, Fairmont) then it should exactly be based on distance from the center of the system.
One alternative, I guess, would be to do by town income or taxes so someone in Needham pays more than someone from Hyde Park? That's absurd.
Another alternative would be to do congestion pricing where it costs more to get on a more popular stops, but that also seems absurd in that the function of the MBTA is to move people where they need to go and relieve pressure on the roads.
How do you think it should be determined? By Bob Deleo?
inversely proportional to
By cornbread
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 2:13pm
the number of people that use the stop, and proportional to the marginal cost of servicing it. Of course you can factor subsidies to disadvantaged communities into that cost.
Councilor McCarthy
By anon
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 1:25pm
I would hope the city Council would hold a hearing on public safety on the Fairmont Line after Channel 7 did an expose on the lax security at Uphans Corner Station. The reporter called the station a heroin hotspot where hundreds of discarded needles are left in the station after junkies shoot up.
What especially bothers me is
By J
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 2:05pm
What especially bothers me is that with every fare increase the difference becomes more pronounced. They keep the corporate inertia of "we've always done it that way" rather than smoothing things out.
What they should do is have zone 1A be $2, have zone 10 be $12 (or whatever it is) and then have every single zone be an equal difference in price.
When the fare goes up, you have 1A be $2.50 (or whatever), zone 10 be 13, or whatever, and again make sure the incremental fare is fully even
I haven bitching about is for
By anon
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 2:05pm
I haven bitching about is for years! Maybe someone finally heard be:)
People should not have to pay $5.75 to go 2 stops after FH while the end of liners only pay .75 more. City of Boston stops should be covered by your regular Combo pass or only charge $1 extra for those stops in Boston. It's highway robbery.
Readville is closer in than Riverside in Newton
By Windypig
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 3:05pm
Newton gets subway service in Riverside which is further out than Readville.
What Hyde Park / Readville, Roslindale, West Roxbury needs is subway extension - anything else is stop gap.
First of all the Fairmount line needs to be the indigo line, fully electrified and run with free transfer all the way from Readville. If users want a quicker trip they can pay more for CR service from Readville.
We need an orange line extension forking at Forest Hills and continuing to Rozzie / West Rox on one Side and Hyde Park Station on the other. On the HP side there should one or two intermediate stops along Hyde Park Avenue. At Cummins Hwy for instance.
The lack of investment in usable public transit in one of the most densely populated areas of the state is an embarrassment for the state and the city.
If the city of Boston is serious about building affordable housing along transit lines they need to get serious about improving transit lines in the areas of the city that can support the habitation of more people.
This sounds familiar...
By issacg
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 3:23pm
Mayor Curtatone, is that you?
Representative Capuano?
A bifurcated orange line to W
By anon
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 5:07pm
A bifurcated orange line to W. Roxbury and Hyde Park was actually the original plan. It was scrapped for budget reasons when the line was relocated in the 80's.
fairmount res/rider here...
By teric
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 3:25pm
haven't met anyone yet who feels unfairly burdened...easy way to solve with a res sticker on certain streets. Mostly I think people have welcomed the larger ridership since it will confirm that the line is needed! Good to see more people on the train. and, I have been at the HP station when the trains don't stop ("we're full!") which ain't welcome news esp in bad weather, so it relieves the Hyde park train, terrific. Finally, McCarthy seems to have found an issue (any issue) to champion...we'll see about attention span or if this is just an election year anomaly.
Readville does seem unfairly fared.
In the 90s
By Mark-
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 4:37pm
When I first moved to Boston, the cost of a Zone 1 commuter rail pass was about 30% more than a Combo pass for the bus and subway. I often took the commuter rail which was a little bit faster from Roslindale Square and more comfortable. Now the Zone 1 pass is about 250% more than a Link pass for bus and subway. Gee, would you pay $75 or would you pay $182? That's insane! I haven't taken the commuter rail in over a decade. At that price, who would?
Regular Public Meetings of full City Council in Neighborhoods!
By theszak
Wed, 09/30/2015 - 5:31pm
The regular Public Meetings of the full Boston City Council could be held from time to time around the different Neighborhoods. There are other civic concerns as well that could be brought forward better.
The lack of investment in
By bastiat
Thu, 10/01/2015 - 2:53pm
@Windypig, here you have highlighted (perhaps inadvertently) a major structural impediment to progress in mass transit. Transit issues that concern Boston (the city) largely involve a regional transit authority (the T).
Making progress in mass transit issues would require collaboration among the city and the T (which also means the state). Such collaboration is tough, to say the least.
Regional matters, I think, are even more difficult to pull off than statewide matters. In this part of the world, we just don't do "regional." Part of the area's charm, I suppose, but that charm has a whopper of a price tag attached.
Tunnel to Rozzie
By Chris2
Thu, 10/01/2015 - 4:46pm
Anyone have any idea how far the orange line subway tunnel at Forest Hills going toward Roslindale actually goes? Where does it go? I have this hopeful fantasy that there is an old, unused, covered-up tunnel all the way from Forest Hills to the old MBTA substation building in the Square that could be fixed up and used again. Sigh.
Shh, nobody's supposed to know about the tunnel ...
By adamg
Thu, 10/01/2015 - 5:27pm
I didn't realize you had a Rozzie resident's card, but read the part on the back about not letting outsiders know!
Anyway, the Orange Line tracks continue, oh, for maybe three trains' length past Forest Hills, alongside the Needham Line (if you want to see the rickety wooden platforms at the end, cross into the Arboretum across from the station and then follow the fence; there might be some impenetrable brush along the way, but there's at least one place to get up close to the tracks; I think you can also see the end of the line from the Harvest Coop parking lot).
If the Orange Line ever is extended, they'd probably just convert the Needham Line to third-rail operations (well, they'd also have to lay a second track on large portions of the route, but the right of way is big enough for that - and even has bridges designed for it, at least through West Roxbury).
The substation powered street cars that ran in, well, the street (hopefully, when it gets renovated, they'll keep some of the basement open for public viewing, especially the wall where all the old - and still labeled - power cables came in).
Roll Call Votes of Boston City Councilors...
By theszak
Fri, 10/02/2015 - 1:53am
Before the Election Tues 3 Nov 2015 check out the Roll Call Votes of Boston City Councilors at
http://www.cityofboston.gov/cityclerk/rollcall/Def...
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