Bus fare elimination has other benefits, particularly with the T's archaic fare collection policies -- all door boarding, shorter dwell times, etc.
Just because they're collecting bus fares doesn't mean they're actually making that much money from the endeavor. I would love to see an analysis of what the net income from collecting bus fares on local buses is. The T's bus network is mainly designed to funnel people to the rapid transit network and the transfer structure means that rapid transit riders get free bus trips anyway. From the
2015-2017 CPTS survey 69% bus riders have some kind of rail or reduced fare pass. If we guesstimate that a similar ballpark of the pay-per-ride riders are reduced fare or transferring to rapid transit, that means they're probably only collecting meaningful revenue from 15%-25% of bus riders who have a monthly local bus pass, are paying cash on board, or are tapping a stored value CharlieCard without connecting to a rail service. Eliminating bus fares would also result in equipment savings, labor savings, etc.
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