WRTA's Free Buses Should Stay For Another Year, Committee Recommends

WORCESTER, MA — A board overseeing the finances of the Worcester Regional Transit Authority wants the bus system to continue its fare-free policy through at least June 2024.

At a meeting Wednesday morning, the WRTA Advisory Board Working Audit and Finance Committee voted unanimously to recommend using federal stimulus dollars to pay for another year of free buses.

"We're a national model now in implementing and supporting and continuing zero fare," WRTA board Chair Gary Rosen said in voting to keep the system free.

The recommendation will now go to the full WRTA board for a final vote. The full board previously voted to keep the system free through the end of fiscal year 2023, which ends June 30. If the WRTA board accepts the audit and finance committee's recommendation, the fare-free policy would continue from July 1 through June 30, 2024.

The proposed fiscal 2024 budget does not include a continuation of the fare-free policy. But the vote on Wednesday would direct WRTA administrators to use about $3.6 million from the system's federal CARES Act allotment to make up for the lost fare revenue. WRTA has close to $20 million in CARES Act funds available.

The WRTA board last voted in September to extend the fare-free policy. The WRTA free-fare policy began in March 2020 as a safety measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was set to expire on Dec. 31.

WRTA provides either fixed route, shuttle or paratransit service to 37 cities and towns in Worcester County from Westborough to Brookfield and south to Webster.