By Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Magazine; September 4, 2019
THE MBTA SHOULD EXPERIMENT with income-based fares and cut charges for reverse-commuting and off-peak travel, the think tank MassINC argues in a new policy brief.
The brief doesn’t advocate for specific commuter rail fares, but notes that the cost of travel between most Gateway Cities and Boston is way too high. The fare cost as a percentage of a community’s median household income ranges from 6 percent in Lynn and Salem to 13 percent in Worcester and Lawrence. In Greater Boston’s wealthy western suburbs, the percentage is in the 2 to 4 percent range.