Is this fare? MTA eyeing hike to $3

MTA officials want to hike the base subway and bus fare to $3 a ride, ditching a proposal to keep it at $2.75, sources said Thursday.

Agency brass will ask board members to vote on the fare hike next week, said sources close to the board.

MTA execs last year had suggested two possible fare hikes. The one officials now favor would raise the base fare from $2.75 to $3, a 9 percent increase.

But in that proposal, riders would get a 16 percent MetroCard bonus on purchases of $6 or more, dropping the average single-ride fare with bonus to $2.59, according to MTA calculations.

The other suggested fare hike would keep the single-ride fare at $2.75, but riders would get only a 5 percent bonus on purchases of at least $5.50, which would make the average fare $2.62.

The current $2.75 base fare includes an 11 percent bonus for purchases of $5.50 or more, making the average fare $2.45.

In both proposals, the cost of 30and seven-day passes would increase less than 4 percent, with the monthly going from $116.50 to $121 and the weekly from $31 to $32.

Riders were unhappy with any of the proposed hikes.

“Service has been getting worse — signal problems, delays, trains getting rerouted, the doors don’t work. It keeps happening more and more,” said Upper West Sider Heath Wolfeld, 32.

“What are the increased prices going to? The service just getting worse, and the MTA is wrong to do this. If the service improved, I wouldn’t mind.”

MTA officials have said the fare hikes would be instituted in the spring as part of regularly scheduled increases.

The agency has been following a biennial schedule of hikes and had announced early last year that the rise would be about 4 percent this year and in 2019.

The MTA this week finalized its contract with the Transport Workers Union Local 100, agreeing to a raise of 2.5 percent over 26 months and a $500 bonus for the last two months.

The Citizens Budget Commission watchdog group has said the MTA would have to raise fares to cover TWU salary hikes, but on Thursday, CBC officials declined to say whether they believed the new union contract led to the push for the $3 base fare.