MA: PVTA fighting the good fight on public transit

The “Try Transit” promotion that runs through June invites people to get where they’re going aboard a bus, rather than in a car. It’s a good goal and worth the $30 million the Legislature allocated for free rides to 15 regional transit groups, including $9 million to the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority.

Wanting more out of public transit has been one of the biggest stories of the past few years – led by clear but slow progress in reawakening passenger rail service between Pittsfield and Boston through Springfield.

While the dream of enhanced west-east rail remains years away, the PVTA is working right now to regain ground it lost in ridership since the pandemic.

The “Try Transit” promotion waives the PVTA’s usual $1.50 fare until June 30. While current riders are benefiting, it will take a public perception of convenience, not just value, to bring people who have other travel options back to PVTA service.

Before the pandemic, the PVTA was logging 10 million passenger trips a year; that fell to the 7.8 million rides it provided in its most recent fiscal year, according to Sandra Sheehan, the authority’s administrator. Statewide, use of public transit remains down 10% since the pandemic.

Sheehan concedes that to get people back – and perhaps build ridership – the authority must make bus travel more and more convenient. Her team is working on that, in part by increasing the frequency of service and shortening trip times. As an example, the PVTA was able to cut what had been a 60-minute “express” trip linking Springfield with Northampton to 30 minutes. That’s competitive with car travel. People seemed convinced. Ridership on that route rose to 19,000 in August, up from 7,900 in a comparable month.

If money were no object, the PVTA could expand its fleet, increase trips and make service more convenient. Money is of course limited, and that’s a big part, along with disrespect for poor people, of why public transit limps along.

Along with letting someone else drive, traveling by bus reduces private vehicle carbon emissions and other costs associated with America’s car culture.

Given how hard it is to change people’s habits, the no-fare promotion is a good way to get people to try traveling on a PVTA bus, perhaps for the first time.

We encourage people to give public transit a chance.

But once they do, the experience must be satisfactory – or people may not give the PVTA a second chance.

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