With Free Fares, NRTA Bus Ridership Continues To Soar

The Nantucket Regional Transit Authority’s ridership jumped 13 percent in the 2026 fiscal year, another sizeable increase in the second year that the island’s public buses have been free to ride.

“Everything is looking good,” NRTA administrator Gary Roberts said. “We are going to stay fare-free, and ridership continues to bump up.”

The use of public transit on Nantucket has exploded in the last two years, surging over 75 percent since the state implemented an initiative making all fixed-route buses operated by regional transit authorities outside of Boston free. In the 2024 fiscal year, the NRTA provided 282,106 rides. In the 2026 fiscal year, that number jumped to 494,884.

The increase in the NRTA’s ridership is not concentrated solely in the summer months, nor is it limited to the highest-volume routes. Instead, use of public transit on Nantucket has increased in nearly every month across almost all routes.

Only one route saw a decline in ridership, with Miacomet falling from 94,219 riders in fiscal year 2025 to 88,397 riders in fiscal year 2026, though it remains the second most trafficked route in total volume behind the mid-island route. The largest increases were seen in the airport and Old South Road routes, both of which saw their ridership increase by well over 10,000 trips.

“We’re seeing most of the gain in ridership is Old South and the Airport route, which I think everyone has noticed that the biggest concern with traffic is Old South Road,” Roberts said. “Mid-island, Miacomet, it’s a little stagnant on the ridership. Everything seems to be pointing toward the Old South corridor where a lot of our ridership is, so we may need to look at moving routes around or adding more frequency on there to try to keep the buses on time. I know on July 4th, we were denying rides trip after trip because the buses were full and they couldn’t fit any more people on the buses.”

The increase in NRTA ridership shows no signs of slowing. Last month, ridership hit 114,557 trips, breaking a record of 108,687 trips set just the month before.

NRTA has also added a new route servicing the Bartlett Farm and Cisco Brewers area.