MTA approves fare hike, monthly MetroCard will increase to $121
This morning MTA officials voted in favor of a subway and bus fare hike, which will go into effect March 19, writes The Times. The transit agency opted not to increase per-ride costs to $3, as previously floated, but to instead up monthly and weekly MetroCard prices from $116.50 and $31 to $121 and $32, respectively. Moreover, although the base price of a ride will not see an increase, there will be a decrease in the “bonus” riders get when they add money to their cards. This will drop from 11 percent to just 5 percent.
Source: MTA. The “Alternate Option Not Selected” breaks down the other hike plan that was up for vote
The increase comes in the face of both rider and board anger over subway service. As 6sqft reported yesterday, MTA board members are just as dissatisfied as straphangers over the system’s failures.
“Service as a whole ranges in the view of the ridership as somewhere between ‘poor’ and ‘fugeddaboutit,’” said Charles Moerdler, who serves on the MTA’s Audit, Finance, Safety, LIRR, Metro-North, and New York City Transit & Bus boards. When presented with numbers showing the increase in delays in 2016, he said, “I don’t want details; I want answers … Any fool can tell you this is a problem.”
Many riders also attended today’s hearing to express their concerns, particularly the financial burden that comes with the increase. And while the board was sympathetic, their protest did little to squash the vote.
The agency argues that increases are needed to support rising costs associated with providing service. They also added in their press release that the vote to keep the base fare flat for another two years is “the lowest fare and toll increase since 2009, when the MTA committed to a biennial schedule for regular increases.”
The last time a fare hike was implemented was in 2015, when the price of a ride jumped from $2.50 to $2.75.
[Via NYT]
RELATED:
