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As gasoline prices drop below $3 for the first time since spring, daily commuters soon will pay another $10 per week to park at train stations.

The MBTA oversight board will raise parking rates starting Nov. 15 to help pay $53 million in back wages it owes union workers, according to published reports.

The $2 per day increase will affect all T parking lots, garages and ferry yards.

Commuter rail stations currently charge $2 per day, including the five in the Sun Chronicle area: Attleboro, South Attleboro, Mansfield, Norfolk and Franklin.

The increase will cost commuters another $10 per week, or $40 per month. Ridership on the rise

The T saw ridership increase monthly for the first seven months of 2008, in large part to gasoline prices skyrocketing toward and past $4 a gallon. Many commuters working in Boston have opted to ride the train rather than drive to work.

Commuters were hit with an average fare increase of 22 percent in January 2007.

The hike made single-day round-trip tickets between Attleboro and Boston $14.50, up from $11. It was the MBTA's first rate increase since January 2004.

However, in August, MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas warned of another fare increase in 2010 if the Legislature doesn't help him with the transportation agency's $8.2 billion debt.