By February 20, 2026
The city of Boston will pay to keep three MBTA bus routes fare-free through the end of June, temporarily extending a pilot program that was expected to run out of money by month’s end.
But its long-term future past that is unclear, four years after Mayor Michelle Wu championed the program as a way to remove financial hurdles for riders and help improve service.
Routes 23, 28, and 29 — which go through Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury — have been free for riders since March 2022, when Wu launched a pilot program to eliminate fares on the three routes, using $8 million in federal pandemic relief dollars.
Wu extended the program for another two years in February 2024, again using federal COVID-19 funds to reimburse the MBTA about $340,000 per month for the program through the beginning of this March.
The city has not spent all of the money it allocated to extend the program two years ago, and what’s left over is enough to fund the pilot through June, Wu’s office said Friday.
MassBudget Reference:
Phineas Baxandall, director of research and policy analysis for the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, said what skeptics scoffed at as a “pie-in-the-sky promise” has been meaningful in the city.
“It had real results for a lot of people, and has been a model around the country,” he said.
