OH, AND MTA PLANS TO HIKE FARES
Open your wallets, weary commuters: Your stuck-in-traffic bus, stalled-in-the-tunnel subway and late-running train will likely cost more next year, MTA officials said Thursday.
NYC Transit is proposing two fare-hike options. One would keep the base fare at $2.75 but nix the bonus for loading up MetroCards. Under that plan, seven-day unlimited ride passes would rise to $33 from $32, while 30-day passes would go up to $127 from $121.
The other plan would boost the base rate to $3 and up the bonus to 10% back on each round trip. Figuring in the discount, loading up a card would make the effective fare $2.73 a trip. Under the plan, seven-day passes would be $33 and 30-day passes would be $126.25.
Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North riders will share the pain. They’ll see a maximum hike of $15 on monthly tickets and $5.75 on weekly tickets. There will be no increases on monthly tickets of at least $500. One-way fare will go up to 4% — though the increases will be capped at 50 cents a trip. The bus, train and subway fare hikes will bring in 4% more revenue.
Motorists will also pay more. The MTA plans a 4% to 8% boost on bridge and tunnel tolls.
MTA is counting on those hikes, even as it waits for Albany to come up with new revenue streams such as congestion pricing, agency officials say. Without that, the hikes will be bigger and service cuts more severe.
“Until we can get these sustainable, additional revenue streams, we really have no choice but to look everywhere, including our riders, to help us fill those holes,” NYC Transit President Andy Byford said. “Otherwise, you’re only making it worse and thereby, it’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Byford’s doing his part: He boosted the agency’s revenue $2.75 when he nabbed a turnstile jumper and identified himself as the transit boss, he told an MTA board meeting Thursday. “Sir, you need to go and buy a ticket,” he said. “And he did.”
The MTA is expecting to take in about $1.7 billion less over the next four years than it had projected in July 2017, when the subway crisis peaked.