Boston, MBTA still mulling free 28 bus

The city and the MBTA continue to try to hammer out an arrangement for Boston to pick up the tab on the busy 28 bus, but there’s no timeline yet for the project Acting Mayor Kim Janey attempted to announce last month.

“The MBTA is working on the details of the pilot, which will be funded by the City of Boston, and hope to have more information once an agreement is finalized,” T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in an email Tuesday.

He continued, “The process of projecting the total costs is part of the ongoing dialogue between the T and the city.”

The 28 bus, which is one of the system’s busiest, runs from Mattapan Square up through Grove Hall and Nubian Square and to Northeastern University. Advocates — and the T itself — have focused on it because it’s one of the key routes for multiple neighborhoods with high concentrations of people of color, who on average spend more time commuting on the T than white people do.

Janey was on the radio talking about the route on Tuesday.

“We are in talks with the MBTA,” she told GBH Greater Boston Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan after they asked her about her push to make it free. “I’d love to get additional resources. So I’m putting forward some resources, I’d love to see if we can get additional resources to extend this opportunity.”

This comes after Janey attempted to make a splash about the route during a mayoral forum last month.

“I’m launching that now as mayor of Boston,” Janey said, according to Commonwealth Magazine coverage.

That was a bit premature. The T on Tuesday noted it’s still working through the “timing and duration of a pilot, public health and operational implications, and program costs,” and there’s no start date announced yet.

“Public transit is a key part of my agenda to make Boston a more equitable and resilient city,” Janey said in a statement Tuesday. “In addition to our ongoing program to provide free Charlie Cards and Blue Bike passes to Main Street business employees in key neighborhoods, I am working with the MBTA on a free bus pilot on the Route 28 line.”

As a city councilor, Janey and now-mayoral foe City Councilor Michelle Wu have pushed for the bus to be free in the past.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3yV0Wvi