Need $300M bump a year – MTA

rise to some is a big rise for people like me,” said Syad Rizvi, 50, a gas station cashier from Queens. “So how can working people afford this?”

Ovid Bathersfield, 34, a nursing assistant from Canarsie, Brooklyn, said she could tolerate a fare hike if service was worth it.

“The train needs to run smoother. No one wants to wait 20 minutes for the next train,” Bathersfield said. “If the trains improved, paying more wouldn’t be as much of an issue.”

David Jones, one of Mayor de Blasio’s MTA board appointees and an advocate for low-income New Yorkers, said he wants the burden of a fare hike to be spread out or covered by other sources of revenue.

“That’s going to be my starting point — are there any ways to come at this that won’t jack up fares for other people just to support the very poor, but at the same time, are there other revenue streams that we have to start looking at more seriously?”