In Midst of Fare Hike Headache, MBTA Shares the Good News

Boston, MA - The MBTA released the good news Monday: it now drops only 93 bus trips per weekday.

The number may still sound large, but it means 98.7 percent of bus trips arrived between January and March. It's also a marked improvement from the 155 dropped trips per weekday its bus service averaged in 2015.

Then again, that good news may prove cold comfort to bus and subway riders still irked by upcoming fare hikes, the impending loss of late-night routes and what many say is continuing poor-quality service. It's an especially needed ray of brightness after riders fumed on social media and protesters stormed a committee vote this month that ultimately raised fares an average of 9.3 percent.

The MBTA released numbers of dropped trips and other metrics Monday, showcasing incremental improvement it surely hopes will sow goodwill with passengers (or at least help them stomach the extra bucks most will pay for service come summer).

Other numbers shared by the MBTA Monday:

• The T is on track toward a goal of reducing overtime by 25 percent
• Average daily overtime expenditures are down 22.7 percent to $119,000, compared with $154,000 in 2015
• Absenteeism has fallen from 15.24 percent among full-time bus operators in 2015 to a rate of 10.16 percent among the same group so far in 2016
• Among transit operators as a whole, that absenteeism has so far fallen to 9 percent from 12.72 percent in 2015

That means money saved by the system, which can be put toward plugging a projected $138 million deficit for the upcoming fiscal year and an estimated $7 billion maintenance backlog. Those figures do not include anticipated revenue from increased fare prices.