City Council, organizers support free buses, but youth are split

A bus loads passengers at Springfield’s Union Station.
Reminder Publishing file photo

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield City Council passed a resolution supporting far-free buses with a vote of 10-0 at its June 15 meeting, overwhelmingly rejecting Mayor Domenic Sarno’s June 2 call for an end to the program, a statement he has walked back in the two weeks since.

Sarno’s comments were in reaction to an incident at Union Station on June 1, in which an estimated 50 to 70 young people gathered and violence broke out. There were eight arrests in the next 24 hours at the site.

Sarno, who witnessed the incident, saw free transportation as the cause of so many people gathering at the station. At a press conference the next day, he said, “This free bus has got to go.”

At the June 15 meeting, however, Ward 6 City Councilor Victor Davila declared, “Fare-free buses are here to stay.” He said safety is a serious concern, and that the Springfield Police Department should have officers permanently stationed at Union Station, rather than rotating police through the transportation hub. He acknowledged that the department is “stretched thin.” At Large City Councilor Kateri Walsh pointed out that the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department had personnel deployed at the station before the state cut funding.

Ward 8 City Councilor Zaida Govan refuted the idea that fare-free buses are the source of violence at Union Station. “Fare-free transportation is not a safety issue,” she said. Rather, she said the problem was, “Young people don’t know how to act.” She said the city needs to identify a way to limit violence among youth.

Ward 5 City Councilor Laval Click-Bruce commented, “There should be accountability on who rides the buses.” Many of the residents he spoke with are concerned about violence at Union Station, and he said young people are not the only perpetrators.

Backtracking on the idea of eliminating free buses, Sarno has since called for a mechanism to track who is riding the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority buses, such as a voucher or swipe card.

Rather than blaming the issue of violence on youth taking free buses, Transportation for Massachusetts Executive Director Reggie Ramos said, “They need to investigate the core problem.”

Jacqueline Velez, who is a Springfield resident and board member of T4MA, said comments about eliminating fare-free buses is “dangerous rhetoric.” She said people are already burdened with the cost of rent, which she said is as much as 50% of some people’s income. “There’s also people being food insecure,” she said. Considering federal cuts to health care and other programs, she said keeping fare-free buses is “the least they can do.”

Ramos said fare-free buses save people an average of $230 per year. “Fare-free connects people to opportunities and youth to school,” she said. She said people rely on it to access doctor’s appointments, jobs and young people can more easily participate in sports. Velez said members of her family do not own cars and without buses, would need to rely on rides from others.

“This is an equity issue,” Ramos said, noting that 55% of PVTA ridership are low-income.

Velez added, “The jobs here don’t pay very much.” She said eliminating the fare-free buses “feels like a punishment, for sure.” Referring to a recent move by state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, Velez said, “Gonzalez riding the bus and talking to people is what the mayor should have done.”

Ramos said there has been a “huge return on investment.” She said Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority found it was more expensive to collect fares than to provide free buses. She also said that fare-free buses increase driver safety because altercations between drivers and riders are higher when collecting fares.

Meanwhile, Ramos said the idea of tracking who is using the bus is “grossly inequitable” and “potentially discriminatory.” She also said that it would put a burden on the PVTA. “Their job is to connect people and get them where they need to be. That’s it,” she said.

Ultimately, Ramos said the city does not have the power to eliminate fare-free buses because it was a part of the state budget.

While the City Council and organizers are adamant that buses should remain free, the city’s teens and young adults are split on the issue. Karah Wray, who is in her early 20s, was recently at Union Station. She said, “I don’t think they should stop the free rides. I’m not rich. It’s not our fault the delinquents don’t know how to act. The freeness is saving my life,” she said.

Wray’s 22-year-old friend Monaisha Crapps disagreed. “I think it’s so ghetto… all the kids fighting, smoking. I think all the kids should be banned from the bus,” she said, adding that that behavior was not a problem when she was a teen. If a ban is not implemented, she said she would be in favor of parental supervision for 13- to 18-year-olds on the bus. Wray agreed on the idea of adult supervision.

However, 17-year-old Kenyon McCollum II had a different opinion. He uses the PVTA to get to night classes.

“At the end of the day, certain people are going to treat Union as a hangout,” he said. Ending fare-free buses would mean “you’re taking transportation from thousands of people.” He liked the idea of a card or pass and said people who have been banned from the station could be kept off the bus.

Reminder Publishing reached out to the PVTA for comment but did not hear back by press time.