Merrimack Valley public transit system will keep bus fares free

From now on, you can ride all buses and transit services in the Merrimack Valley region for free.

Merrimack Valley Transit, or MeVa, became the first regional transportation authority in the state make permanent a fare-free policy for all of its services that span across 16 cities and towns.

Roughly $1.5 million of the transit authority's operating costs were supported by fares before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by Stantec consultants and the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission.

Meanwhile, collecting fares cost MeVa about $300,000 a year to maintain fare boxes, pay staffers and afford insurance.

Since going fare free in 2022, the report found ridership increased 60% from pre-pandemic levels, providing nearly 3 million rides in the last fiscal year. Bus service spans from Lowell to Salisbury Beach.

The report, released Tuesday, also found buses ran more efficiently, and riders and operators reported high satisfaction with the transit system.

It estimated that about $2 million a year in other economic, environmental and health benefits could be linked to the fare free program.

The findings were pitched to the board on Thursday as reasons to make the policy permanent.

MeVa administrator Noah Berger said  “the benefits [of the program] actually are outweighing the costs.” Nearly all of the board members voted in support of preserving the policy. One member abstained.

Transit advocates like Stacey Thompson, former executive director of the nonprofit LivableStreets, credited the team behind the report for making a “business case” for keeping the program and showing “this is a financially responsible policy.”

Thompson said offering transportation at no cost is a “huge social benefit” for MeVa riders. She said people can “just go to a bus stop,” and do things like go to a doctor’s appointment, pick up a child from school and do groceries “and not have to worry if they have a dollar."

"That is transformative for people in an uncertain economic moment,” she added.

MeVa’s fare free program was originally funded by COVID relief dollars. The program is now funded by state allocated funds, including money from the so called “millionaire’s tax.”

Thompson said that tax should remain “a viable solution" to keep the transit system "solvent."

Although board members' voted to keep fares free indefinitely, Berger said the transit system's advisory board could technically reevaluate the policy at any time.