Rhode Island officials want more residents to commute to work by rail, so much so that they’re going to pay for free rides.
Passengers can travel free through the end of the year between Providence and the two stops south of the state capitol as part of an agreement between the MBTA and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. The program began last Monday.
The half year of free trips, which were announced in May, is aimed at bolstering sagging ridership from stations at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick and Wickford Junction in North Kingstown. On weekdays, the MBTA operates 10 daily round trips to and from Wickford Junction.
But ridership has been especially low at Wickford Junction. The station, which opened in 2012, picks up about 300 riders a day — a far cry from a 1995 projection of nearly 3,400 daily riders.
Charles St. Martin, a spokesman for Rhode Island’s transportation department, said those early projections were based on dated assumptions about housing development in North Kingstown that are no longer valid. Still, he acknowledged, ridership numbers “are lower than we’d like them to be.’’
So in an effort to grow ridership, Rhode Island will cover costs for any travel within the state. That means any trips from North Kingstown to Providence, which cost $3.50, or Warwick to Providence, which cost $3.25, are free through December, and vice versa. And travel from those two stations into Massachusetts will only cost the price of a ticket from Providence.
Rhode Island will pay the T $102,000 for the program, or $17,000 a month, a sum that covers the MBTA’s typical Rhode Island fare revenue.
’’We’re looking to increase the ridership and general awareness of the service,’’ St. Martin said. “We’re finding that in general, transit usage in Rhode Island is low. We have a car culture here in Rhode Island. So it’s a matter of making people aware of the opportunity for an easy ride to work.’’
Rhode Island has an incentive to grow ridership. The state pays for infrastructure work to compensate the MBTA for providing train service in Rhode Island, a figure that is based on fare revenue from local riders. As a result, getting ridership up reduces the state’s share of the cost. According to St. Martin, Rhode Island now owes about $6.4 million worth of work to the T.
Paying for free rides now, he said, could lead to more paying customers down the line. “It’s an investment in an effort to get more riders,’’ he said.
US Representative Michael Capuano had a similar theory when he used $53,000 in campaign funds to sponsor free service along the Fairmount Line in Boston for two weeks in May.
According to the MBTA, ridership on the line increased by 25 percent the first week of service and 44 percent in the second week, but returned to the same ridership levels once the free ride was over.
London firm hired to study North-South rail link
The company hired to make sense of the North-South Rail Link already has a record of working on complicated and costly projects with state officials.
The state Department of Transportation has tapped the US office of London-based design consultancy Arup to study the rail link, an ambitious proposal to put a new tunnel under Boston and connect the commuter rail lines north and south of the city. Arup was awarded the $1.5 million contract on June 30, after officials began soliciting bids for the study earlier this year.
Arup is familiar to state transportation officials. In 2015, they tasked the company with finding ways to trim costs on the Green Line extension to Medford after that project’s costs were found to be way over budget. The company is still involved with the Green Line expansion, providing design services to the state.
Arup has also worked on several prominent non-transportation projects in Boston, including the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Center, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and many local university buildings, including MIT’s Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex.
The proposal to connect North and South stations has long been on the wish list of some transit activists that was once tied in to the Big Dig highway project, though some consider it an unnecessary and fanciful idea. Another study of the project was shelved more than a decade ago by then-governor Mitt Romney.
But the rail link has seen fresh support in recent years, after former governors Michael Dukakis and William Weld publicly called on Governor Charlie Baker to support the plan, arguing it is a better alternative to expanding South Station to make way for more trains. The idea has also won the support of several members of the state’s congressional delegation.
Supporters argue the project would provide commuters with new housing and work opportunities on opposite ends of the city, lower congestion at North and South stations, and help address train storage issues.
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack has said the study “will help determine if further technical and financial analysis for the project is warranted.’’ It is expected to be completed by next spring.
In an interview, Dukakis said Arup “has a fine reputation and we’re looking forward to working with them.’’ He hopes the study will consider more than just costs and ridership, also focusing on economic development and labor mobility.
Adam Vaccaro can be reached at adam.vaccaro@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @adamtvaccaro.
