RIDERS: IT’S SO UNFARE!
Protest hike plan
Furious straphangers rallied outside Gov. Cuomo’s Midtown office on Sunday to protest proposed MTA fare and toll hikes.
In addition to increasing subway fares, the agency is considering a raise in the price of a new single-use MetroCard, eliminating unlimited subway passes and revoking the Staten Islandresident discount on the Verrazzano Bridge.
The agency is also mulling a cut to subway service and the elimination of about 9,400 jobs as it faces a severe budget shortfall and plummeting ridership amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Protesters blasted the proposed increases.
“Hiking fares with all of these offices closed, with ... with subways shut down overnight is unfairly asking essential workers and low-income New Yorkers to pay more for less,” said Betsy Plum, executive director of The Riders Alliance.
“We cannot use the subway and bus fare as a . . . backdoor tax to fund the state government,”
Pedro Valdez, 29, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, said, “If there will be a higher fare rate starting in March, it will take a devastating toll on my family’s immediate monthly expenses, especially since there will be a possibility of no unlimited MetroCards, which saves us a lot of money.”
Fare and toll hikes would go into effect in March if approved by the MTA board early next year.
By the end of the day, though, there was some good news when Congress announced a COVID-19 relief deal that includes $14 billion for public-transportation agencies nationwide.
It’s unclear how much of that would go to the MTA, which had been seeking a $4.5 billion boost from the feds, even though it would still face an $8 billion shortfall.
Even so, “This crucial funding will allow us to get through 2021 without devastating service cuts and layoffs,” MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye said in a statement Sunday night.
“This is a promising first step that will help protect the local, state and national economies in the short term.”