Big-City Transit Rider snip, Deficits, and Politics: Avoiding Reality in Boston

Boston is typical of many metropolitan areas struggling to maintain or increase their transit ridership while keeping their transit deficits—defined here as the shortfall between passenger revenues and transit agency costs— under control. In Boston, transit rider-ship has increased over the last twenty years because the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has offset the effects of suburbanization and income growth by extending rail lines into the suburbs and by keeping fare increases below the rate of inflation. The service extensions and fare reductions have been a major factor, however, in the explosion of the MBTA deficit from $21 million in 1965 to $575 million in 1991. There has been little political will or incentive to date to adopt measures-such as tolling autos or contracting out transit services with the private sector—that might help control the deficit without greatly reducing ridership. Although these measures are not long-term remedies, without them cities like Boston may soon find they cannot afford to maintain transit ridership.