City Council Renews Push to Make Route 1 Bus Fare-Free

The Cambridge City Council is again pushing to make the Route 1 bus free for riders, unanimously backing an order directing city staff to work with Boston to assess the feasibility of the plan.

The Council championed a proposal to make the 1 bus free in 2024, but the MBTA cited budgetary issues and former Assistant City Manager Iram Farooq wrote in a memo to the Council at the time that the proposal was likely unfeasible until fiscal year 2026.

Tuesday’s order — co-sponsored by Councilors Ayah A. Al-Zubi ’23, Jivan G. Sobrinho-Wheeler, Marc C. McGovern, and Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem — tasked City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 with working with Boston and the MBTA to assess the cost of making Route 1 free, standalone or as a part of Boston’s existing fare-free program.

The policy order asks Huang to request current MBTA ridership data, update the 2024 implementation cost estimate, check federal fare equity rules, and assess the capacity of Boston and the MBTA’s capacity to make Route 1 fare-free. The order also asks Huang to assess whether it may be possible to pilot fare-free rides on Routes 47 and 66 as the city tracks “ridership, speed and cost” for those routes.

Route 1 is the fourth-largest bus route in the MBTA system, servicing about 9,000 riders on an average weekday. But it also regularly faces delays due to traffic on Massachusetts Ave., one of Cambridge’s busiest corridors.

McGovern pushed the Council to approve the order, arguing that a fare-free Route 1 would help reduce congestion in the city.

“The best thing we can do to alleviate traffic is to get more people on the bus or more people on bikes and get fewer cars on the road,” McGovern said. “But you can only do that if the other services you’re providing are reliable and accessible.”

Councilor Catherine “Cathie” Zusy said that, though she was broadly in favor of fare-free transit, she was unsure whether Route 1 was the right target for Cambridge. Routes 1 and 66 both make multiple stops in Harvard Square, while Route 47 stops in nearby Central.

“Even though Route 1 is a very popular route, the MBTA is underfunded,” Zusy said. “There may be some other way that we can better support low-income workers.”

In 2024, the plan to make Route 1 fare-free was estimated to cost the city roughly $1 million. The order requests a response from Huang within 90 days, and in time for the development of the 2028 fiscal year budget.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Al-Zubi argued that making a decision on the order was urgent given the timeline of Boston’s existing fare-free program — which will make Routes 23, 28, and 29 free until the end of the year.

“Boston’s fare-free program is funded through December 31,” Al-Zubi said. “If we want the 1 in that conversation, we have to say so this fall, so we can go in with Boston City Council on making this happen.”

“Let me be clear: this order does not spend anything — it’s just asking the manager to get the MBTA’s boarding data so that we know our actual updated share,” she added.

Councilors also pointed to growing support for a federal bill — backed by Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.) and Sen. Ed J. Markey (D-Mass.) — that would fund a grant to support fare-free transit nationwide.

But in an emailed statement, Al-Zubi wrote that the council would not wait on federal legislation to push for free public transit.

“Riders in Cambridge and Boston shouldn’t have to wait on Washington. Transit is a public good, and this is a practical step toward it with our neighbors in Boston,” Al-Zubi wrote.