Logan set to hike parking rates in June
And one month later airport fees for taxis, express buses to rise
Peter J. Howe, Boston Globe, 5/9/2007
Parking at Logan International Airport -- and taking a taxi or bus there too -- is likely to cost more starting June 1.
Airport executives are seeking to boost the central garage daily parking rate next month to $24 from $22 now. In the Terminal B garage, which already charges $24 daily, rates for parking between 30 minutes and two hours would be boosted $1 or $2 to match rates in the main garage. Those would be the first increases in four years.
Starting July 1, Logan officials want to increase the special airport taxi and limousine fees by 25 cents to $2.25 for taxis and $3.25 for limousines. Tickets to ride the Logan Express bus from Braintree, Framingham, Peabody, and Woburn would rise $1 each way. The changes are expected to be approved May 17 by the board of directors of the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan.
"We're just trying to cover our costs," Jack Hemphill, Massport's Logan business manager, said in an interview. The last parking increase at Logan was in April 2003, according to a Massport spokesman.
Even with the increases, parking at Logan will still cost less than several other big US airports, including Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International, Chicago's O'Hare International, Los Angeles International, and LaGuardia in New York, which all charge $26 to $30 daily.
But the changes will make the two closest major airports to Boston, Manchester Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire and T.F. Green in Warwick, R.I., an even better deal, especially for people planning to park for a weeklong vacation.
Among the new rates, parking in Logan's economy lot -- which requires taking a shuttle bus to the airport terminals -- would jump to $108 weekly from $96. That compares to $10 per day or $70 per week for lot parking in Manchester and $56 weekly at the Providence airport. Manchester charges $17 daily in its garage, Providence $20.
Now that a $217 million construction project to increase the central garage by 2,880 spaces is largely complete, Massport officials decided it was fair to equalize daily parking rates there with the Terminal B garage, ending a $2-a-day break parkers now get in the central garage instead of the Terminal B lot between US Airways and American Airlines.
Logan officials also want the Massport board to raise monthly employee parking fees by $5. On-airport spaces would increase to $130, Chelsea parking to $90, and spots at the Logan Express lots to $65 .
The increase for riding Logan Express is the first since 2003, Hemphill said. It would boost the cost of a one-way adult ride to from $11 to $12 and round-trip from $20 to $22. The cost of parking at the four suburban lots isn't changing.
Carrie Russell, a staff attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston environmental group that has pushed to improve public transportation access to Logan, said she hoped the changes would increase or at least keep steady the number of people choosing to get to Logan on mass transit instead of driving.
While the increase in parking rates may make riding the MBTA more appealing, Russell said she was concerned about the Logan Express bus rate increase.
"Urban residents have some good options, like the Blue Line and the Silver Line, and the Logan Express service is important because it reaches out to an even broader set of communities," Russell said.