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alohadave t1_ja83zjc wrote

Reply to comment by senatorium in MBTA won’t roll out $935M automated fare payment system in 2024 by weallgettheemails2

Fares never fully paid for the cost of running the system. I don't remember the exact percent, but it's only as high as 60%, and that feels high. It's public transit and uses public money to operate with.

Studies have shown the costs of collecting and enforcing fares is pretty close to what the fares bring in in many systems.

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TheDoktorIsIn t1_ja87pfu wrote

My favorite was a couple years ago they had that whole Fare is Fair thing.

You know what else is fair? Trains that run on time. Tracks that don't light on fire. Faster train service than walking from A to B. Fair goes both ways, I'm paying for a service.

Also the vast majority of the time when tickets weren't checked on the commuter rail, it was because they were understaffed and couldn't check tickets. But I'm sure they thought of that... Right?

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Vivecs954 t1_ja861yb wrote

The “fares” is mostly the commuter rail too, like free busses would cost almost nothing because there aren’t that many bus fare dollars to give away in the first place.

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