Boston's fare-free bus program extended through June

Boston’s fare-free bus program is getting a three-month extension, as the city uses the last of the federal relief funds that have covered fares on three MBTA routes over the past five years.

The free bus program launched in 2021 with bus route 28. Mayor Michelle Wu expanded the offerings when she took office, to include routes 23 and 29 during her first term. Those routes service communities in Dorchester, Mattapan and Roxbury.

“Fare-free bus service helps families, workers, and businesses, and also makes bus service faster and more reliable,” Wu said in a press release Friday.

The city of Boston reimburses the MBTA $340,000 per month to cover the cost of the program. That money comes from a $16.9 million pot of COVID-era funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

The money was projected to cover the bus costs through March. But late in 2025, Wu told WBUR “it's looking like there may be” enough funds to sustain the program for up to four additional months.

Wu has advocated for fare-free public transportation since her days as a Boston city councilor. During her first mayoral campaign she vowed to champion fare-free transit, but funding that promise has proven elusive.

According to the city's press release, the program appears to be paying off: Free bus routes now carry 16% more passengers than before the pandemic, and “all-door boarding has cut dwell times by about 20%,” making boarding the buses faster, since bus drivers don't have to collect fares.

However, transit advocate Caitlin Allen-Connelly, executive director of the group TransitMatters, said she wouldn't call the program a resounding success. She said the data presented by the city so far does not show strong evidence that people are taking the bus instead of commuting by car.

" A bigger issue, in Boston in general, is that the buses, including the buses in the fair-free program, spend far too much time stuck in traffic," Allen-Connelly said. An annual report from her organization on the MBTA's slowest and most bunched buses cited two of the three fare-free lines.

She said the T should invest more in ways to improve performance, like center-lane routes or traffic signals that prioritize buses.

"That's really where the real gains are," she said.

Interim Transportation Secretary and MBTA General Manager Phil Eng said in a statement the T is "pleased to be able to support" the city's fare-free program. While he hasn't commented on the mayor's desire to expand free transit, he has been a staunch supporter of the T's income-eligible reduced fare program, which offers discounted fares to riders who are enrolled in other income-based support programs, such as for food and health services.

Nearly 36,000 riders are enrolled in the program, according to Eng's statement.

“Working with the City of Boston and all of our municipal partners, we are improving people’s quality of life and making a real difference, building a more equitable and affordable transportation system network for all who depend on it."