Transportation
Transit fare hikes coming down the track
BY RICO BURNEY
New Yorkers will soon be paying
more for public transit after the
Metropolitan Transportation
Authority voted last week to increase
the price of unlimited MetroCards and
eliminate bonuses on pay-per-ride MetroCards.
Under the new fare scheme, approved
Feb. 27, the price of 30-day unlimited
MetroCards will increase nearly 5 percent
to $127. Meanwhile, seven-day
unlimited cards’ price will be hiked by
3.1 percent to $33. The base fare will
remain $2.75. But with riders no longer
receiving a 5 percent bonus on refi lls of
$5.50 or more, the changes effectively
mean riders who do not get unlimited
passes will be paying 5 percent more,
as well.
Riders who qualify for reduced-fare
MetroCards can expect to pay $63.50
for 30-day passes, $16.50 for seven-day
passes and $1.35 per ride.
The fare hike will take effect April 21.
The M.T.A. believes these fare hikes, as
well those on the Long Island Railroad,
Metro-North and M.T.A.-owned bridges
and tunnels would bring in an extra
Mayor de Blasio rode the R train to City Hall from Park Slope on Wed.,
Feb. 27, to inform straphangers of a new plan by him and Governor
Cuomo to fund the M.T.A.
$336 million every year.
The board was supposed to vote on
raising fares last month but decided to
table the vote until this month to explore
other revenue-raising options.
Some, such as City Council Speaker
Corey Johnson, criticized M.T.A. leadership
for effectively losing $30 million
by delaying the fare hikes for a month.
The fare-hike announcement came
the day after Governor Andrew Cuomo
and Mayor Bill de Blasio released
a 10-point reform plan for the M.T.A.
that would create new revenue streams
to fund needed work to adequately run
the beleaguered transit system.
Their proposal’s most notable aspect
was a call for congestion pricing on all
vehicles entering Manhattan below 61st
St. The revenue raised from the tolls, as
well as marijuana taxes would then be
put in a “lockbox” to fund the M.T.A.
The governor and mayor have yet
to say how much the new tolls would
charge drivers, so it’s impossible to
know exactly how much money their
plan would add to the M.T.A.’s coffers.
Cuomo previously said in his State of
the State address he expects congestion
pricing to raise $1 billion a year
in revenue.
De Blasio, who for many years argued
that congestion pricing would harm
outer-borough residents, gave his support
to the plan after getting assurance
from Cuomo that low-income drivers
and vehicles entering Manhattan at offpeak
hours would be charged less.
The joint proposal also calls for fare
increases to be limited to 2 percent
per year to keep up with infl ation and
hoped-for cost-saving measures, such
as consolidating positions under the
six divisions the M.T.A. controls and
independently auditing the authority’s
assets and liabilities by next January.
A spokesperson for the N.Y.P.I.R.G.
Straphangers Campaign characterized
called de Blasio and Cuomo’s announcement
a “signal to riders that
both city and state leaders are committed
to repairing and modernizing New
York’s long-suffering transit system.”
Speaker Johnson also praised the
two pols for working to pass congestion
pricing. Nevertheless, he also said
their joint statement “falls far short of
the bold vision we need to address our
city’s mass transit crisis.”
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