What is the reasoning behind having it cost much more to get downtown than between outer stations? It costs the same amount to get from Hyde Park to Ruggles as from Hyde Park to Providence. Similarly, it costs the same amount to get from Belmont Center to Porter Square as it does to get from Belmont Center to Fitchburg. Anyone know why?
It's the jump in zones. Ruggles-->HP is Zone 1A-->Zone 1; Porter-Belmont is 1A to 1. The Fitchburg Line sequences all the way up to Zone 8, Providence all the way up to Zone 10 on a Wickford trip. Since the top of the scale is predicated by endpoint and the zones attempt to organize roughly the same systemwide there's a lot of equitability conflicts trip vs. trip, line vs. line. Not an easy one to solve because the needs of inside-128 commutes are very different from the needs of 495/intercity commutes, and the zones have to be human-readable everywhere.
Check out some of the variances inside 128 that would come into play on various 128-orientated short-turns:
Riverside (Worcester Line) -- Zone 1A at Back Bay and Yawkey, 1 at Newtonville, 2 at West Newton and Auburndale, 3 at Wellesley Farms. Allston/New Balance is clearly going to be a 1A, but that'll likely make Newton Corner a 1 and Riverside a 2.
Anderson-Woburn (Lowell Line) -- West Medford a 1A, Wedgemere and Winch. Ctr. 1's, Mishawum and Anderson 2's.
Reading (Haverhill Line) -- Malden Ctr.'s a 1A, Wyoming Hill thru Melrose Highlands a 1, Greenwood thru Reading a 2.
Waltham (Fitchburg Line)-- Porter a 1A, Belmont and Waverley a 1, Waltham and Brandeis a 2, Kendal Green a 3. A would-be 128 park-and-ride stop displacing KG would most logically get grouped with the 2's.
Needham -- 1A to Forest Hills, 1 Rozzie to W. Roxbury, 2 Hersey to Needham Heights.
Fairmount -- all 1A's to Fairmount, 1 at Readville. If extended to Westwood/128, Zone 2.
Salem/Beverly (Eastern Route) -- Chelsea's a 1A, Riverworks and Lynn jump to 2, Swampscott and Salem are 3's, and Beverly (your would-be short-turn) is a 4. If there's a future Peabody Branch that's probably Peabody Sq. a 3 and North Shore Mall/128 a 4 under this setup.
Quite a spread. But you don't have to look far to see problems galore:
Riverside -- Newton divided by multiple fare zones; unduly punishes locals. Biggest would-be bus terminal on the route (Newton Corner) an interzone jump for nearly everyone.
Reading -- Fairly distributed overall, but Malden Ctr.'s the big bus terminal so that's a high interzone fare jump to those using it purely locally.
Waltham -- Waltham's a big bus terminal. Porter and/or Alewife big on every-transfers. Both take a pound of flesh on interzone fares if you're getting off 1-2 stops before the terminal in either direction.
Needham -- Rozzie and W. Rox get totally boned over bad being in Zone 1 while Fairmount gets 1A'd. Can't reach any transfers whatsoever--not even Forest Hills--without an interzone jump. Borderline cruel.
Salem/Beverly -- Where do I begin? Lynn costs as much as an entire 128 trip on any other line. And it's the largest bus terminal on the T served only by commuter rail, so maximum interzone pain everywhere-to-everywhere. Swampscott and Salem are more expensive than past-128 destinations like Wilmington, Norwood Central, the 3 Weston and 3 Wellesley stops, and Holbrook/Randolph. Not just borderline cruel...plain-old cruel to the North Shore.
And then, of course, there's Westwood/128 and its Zone 2 beckoning the Fairmount Line out there. Providing a significant influx of 9-5 park-and-riders and an anchor for Westwood Landing at a station expandable to support the traffic. That could happen soon...like, the second the DMU's go into service soon. But it'll be an immediate test of their ability to deal with "Indigo" fare collection in some way that's seamless to riders and properly scalable for destinations.
Won't be easy. You've got lines out of whack (some very very far out-of-whack) with each other that need to be redistributed...and not with
higher fares but lower. You've got major bus terminals where more frequent service could/would encourage more transfer usage...but only if those riders aren't getting unduly punished for getting off 2-3 stops before the terminal to catch their bus. That means dilineating what's a key transfer stop from what's not a key transfer stop from inside a sliding scale. And whatever they do has to remove, not add to, the abstraction the rider faces in trying to understand the zone system. It doesn't matter if the back-end system is programmed for everything from Zone 1A to Zone 2Q in what it sees...all that matters is that what the riders sees is that he or she can tap-on/tap-off with their card and be certain they got charged only their fair share and no more.
