Transportation
M.T.A. is on track to decide on a fair hike
BY JOSEPH M. CALISI
It looks like there could be no light
at the end of the tunnel for straphangers,
as the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority’s board of directors
may well put a fare hike into effect
in March 2019. The board will make its
decision offi cial early next year.
Two years ago, the MetroCard base
rate was kept at $2.75 but weekly and
monthly MetroCard rates, as well as
commuter railroads and tolls on bridges
and tunnels, went up.
The M.T.A. stated, “The M.T.A.
board will consider all public feedback
before adopting any new fare structure,
and as demonstrated in the past, the
board is not limited to the proposals
already put forward.”
As of last week, the authority was
said to be choosing between two farehike
proposals.
The fi rst option would keep the base
fare at $2.75 and eliminate the upfront
MetroCard bonus for weekly and
monthly fare cards while upping the
30-day “unlimited ride” MetroCard to
$127 — an increase of $6.
Under the second option, the base
fare would be raised to $3 and the
George Haikalis, president of IRUM and of Village Crosstown Trolley
fame, testified against a fare hike at the M.T.A. board’s meeting on
Nov. 27.
bonus raised to 10 percent, while the
seven-day MetroCard would go up by
$1, to $33. But this week the New York
Post reported a fare hike is coming.
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The Nov. 27 board meeting was held
at Baruch College’s Mason Hall, at 17
Lexington Ave., at 23rd St. Many came
to the microphone to testify. Among the
speakers of note was Curtis Sliwa, who
heads the Guardian Angels, a volunteer
security force that patrols the subways
among other areas within the city.
“Yesterday we had an historic event
with the landing on Mars but on the
same day, we had signal failures on our
new No. 7 subway,” Sliwa said, dramatically.
Also testifying was George Haikalis,
of the Institute for Rational Mobility
(IRUM), who also supports bringing
back a crosstown trolley on Eighth St.
“IRUM strongly opposes the M.T.A.’s
fare hikes,” Haikalis said. “A coherent
strategy of ‘carrots and sticks’ is needed.
Endless ‘sticks’ — like fare hikes
combined with more ‘sticks’ like toll
hikes — won’t do it.”
Haikalis urged the M.T.A. to work
with the New York Metropolitan Transportation
Council and its partners in the
metro area to launch a comprehensive
study on how the region should fund its
public transportation network.
With the pending fi nancial shortfall
within the M.T.A., the authority is
looking at all options, including fare
hikes and a workforce reduction to
make ends meet.
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14 December 6, 2018 TVG Schneps Community News Group
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