It is no secret that trust in public transit has suffered greatly across the U.S., in Massachusetts and here on the Island.
Train service in the country is embarrassingly lacking compared with other developed nations; Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority commuter lines and T service are routinely plagued by construction, breakdowns, and other inadequacies. More locally, the Steamship Authority service to the Islands has been the cause of outrage for many Vineyarders, with rising costs and interrupted service. The COVID-19 pandemic did not help, as ridership dropped across the board on public transit. Meanwhile, traffic on the Island seems to grow worse and worse every summer, with too many cars riding Steamship ferries.
But there has been a glimmer of good news in Massachusetts and the Island: free bus rides.
A new program introduced in the past few years that subsidizes bus rides has been a boon for ridership. The free-fare program is largely the result of a ballot question that Massachusetts voters passed in 2022, called the Massachusetts’s Fair Share Amendment, known more commonly as the “millionaires’ tax.” The measure, going into effect in 2023, levies a 4 percent surtax on homeowners who make more than $1 million annually. Funding from the tax is collected and spent on education and transportation.
With the infusion of new revenue, state officials decided to cover passenger rides on regional transit authorities across the state and outside Boston. The intention is to boost ridership in the aftermath of the pandemic, when passenger rates dropped dramatically.
Since going into effect, ridership has increased tremendously around the state. On the South Coast, the Southeast Regional Transit Authority, or SRTA, saw a more than 50 percent increase in ridership from July to November 2024 under the free program, compared with the same time the previous year. The New Bedford Light reports the transit authority never surpassed 3 million trips in a year; with free buses, it provided more than 4 million trips in the most recent cycle.
The Vineyard has also seen a significant jump. The free program started on the Vineyard in 2022, but only for a month. In December, the month the program went into effect, ridership grew about 9 percent. For 2023 into 2024, the program was extended for several more months, and ridership continued to creep up.
But the latest funding cycle covered rides for the most of the year, including the summer months this past season. And riders were taking advantage. Angie Gompert, the Vineyard Transit Authority (VTA) administrator, said at a meeting this week that the program has felt like a return to the “glory days” of the authority.
The VTA reported last week that ridership in June of this summer was significantly higher than August 2024, which is traditionally the peak of the summer season. July and August 2025 saw ridership at around 9,000 per day and over 10,000 per day, respectively.
The program was originally planned to end on Tuesday, but Gompert announced recently that it will be extended until May. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has set aside $35 million for fiscal year 2026 to subsidize free rides for passengers across the state, a $5 million increase from last year. That allows for the addition of new transit authorities to join the program, including the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority.
The unfortunate news is that funding may not cover rides for the summer months next year, at least yet. Gompert told her advisory board last week that she will lobby the state to extend the program into summer (she has her “boxing gloves on,” as she told her board).
For the climate, to decrease traffic, to help the Island’s less fortunate, to help restore much-needed trust in our public transit systems — for a whole litany of important reasons — we advocate for the state to extend the program. With more people getting on the bus, fewer people will be driving, resulting in fewer carbon emissions, especially considering the VTA’s commitment to electric buses. Providing free service levels the playing field and helps people on a budget, who disproportionately represent ridership of buses. They will be freer to move about. It will benefit business around the Island, as residents are more apt to travel across town. It also increases the reliability and speed of the buses — rather than sitting around waiting for a ticket fare to process, it’s just hop on and hop off.
Here is a golden opportunity to do the right thing to help alleviate traffic on the Island. For the benefit of the Island and Massachusetts, we encourage state officials to keep the program running.
Let’s get cars off our roads, and bring back the glory days of public transit.
