“In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, inflicting a major hit to the T’s second-biggest revenue source: its fares. Four years after the first stay-at-home orders, the T’s ridership is still a fraction of what it used to be. Fare revenues this year are expected to generate $403 million, compared to $671 million in 2019.
The federal government sent the T over $2 billion in pandemic relief funding to try and make up for lost fares. But now, that money is nearly gone.
Meanwhile, the T has gone on a hiring blitz to restore service and try to fix all of the maintenance problems that had been neglected for decades. Service is finally improving again, but labor costs are higher than ever, and growing fast.
‘The T has never been able to operate solely under the dedicated subsidies and fare revenue at its disposal,’ says Brian Kane, who closely observes the T’s finances as the Executive Director of the MBTA Advisory Board. ‘There’s nothing that people inside the MBTA can do to solve these underlying problems. It has to get fixed by folks on Beacon Hill.'”
08/23/24 | By Christian MilNeil