Markey, Pressley team up for free T
Pair push transit bill in Mattapan
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey is pushing for free buses and trains — though, in a refrain familiar to MBTA riders, it’s probably not getting rolling anywhere quite yet, he acknowledged.
Markey, who continues a tough Senate re-election campaign, appeared with U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley in Mattapan to tout the Freedom to Move Act legislation the pair partnered to introduce last month. The bill would include $5 billion in grants for transit agencies, and Markey insisted “the goal” would be to get the T’s bus and train rides free to everyone through such a grant.
Asked how a bill like this could actually get passed by the current Republican-controlled Senate and White House, Markey turned his hopeful eyes to next year.
“After Joe Biden is sworn in as president and we control the Senate and the House of Representatives, and the best way to recover from this economic and health care catastrophe that we are suffering from — the best way to do it is to pass a huge infrastructure bill,” the Malden Democrat said. “So we’re going to be thinking big next year — very big.”
Markey literally laced up his sneakers to trot a couple of blocks down Blue Hill
Avenue in Mattapan Square on Wednesday with Pressley, Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu and local advocates. Markey remains locked in what polls have suggested to be a tight battle for re-election with U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III ahead of a September Democratic primary.
Pressley, who lives about a mile away from the area they walked and represents the district in Congress, said issues of transit access are particularly important in areas like Mattapan with large Black and brown populations that historically have not seen much investment.
“The fact that the median wealth for a Black family is $8 and for a white family it’s $247,000 has everything to do with the lack of access to affordable rapid reliable transit,” Pressley said. “So public transit is a public good.”
The T was budgeted to take in nearly $700 million in fares last year — though the coronavirus pandemic heavily cut into that, in practice — with the rest of the $2 billion budget coming from advertisements, a cut of the state’s sales tax and other aid.
Advocates — last year led by Wu — pushed to “free the T” as the oft-beleaguered transit agency sought to raise fares. The T still costs money, though the MBTA did revise down some of its proposed increases last year. Now advocates have resumed a push for fare-free transit in Boston, looking to start with making a couple of bus lines free that run through poorer minority neighborhoods including Mattapan.