MTA to offer 10% discount on LIRR and Metro-North trips in NYC
Metro-North station in Fordham. Photo via Wikimedia
To promote public transit use when congestion pricing begins, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to offer a 10 percent discount on monthly tickets for Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road trips that start and end within the five boroughs. The board is expected to approve a pilot program on Tuesday that would cut fares by up to $22 per month depending on the zone, as laid out by the MTA. The program, which would start July 1 and run for one year, is designed to incentivize drivers to switch to public transit as New York City’s congestion pricing program kicks off on June 30.
According to the MTA, the discounts would range between $14 and $22 on the LIRR, depending on which fare zones commuters travel through. For example, the cost of a monthly LIRR pass from Jamaica, Queens to Penn Station would decrease from $220 to $198.
Discounts on Metro-North would range from $6.50 to $19.75, depending on the fare zones. Monthly passes between Grand Central Terminal and the northern Bronx would go from $199.75 to $180.
The new discount adds another 10 percent discount for the two commuter rails on top of the 10 percent already applied by the MTA in March 2022, MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan told Gothamist.
“Getting on board the rails, getting on board subways, getting on buses, getting on express buses is the way to travel. Nobody likes to sit in traffic,” Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, said to Gothamist. “New York City has the best transit in the United States. It will save time, it will save money and it will help to save the environment and climate.”
The program would be funded by the state’s Outer Borough Transportation Account, a transit fund created in 2019 when congestion pricing was signed into law, according to Gothamist. The MTA didn’t mention an estimated cost for the initiative.
The Account is funded by surcharges on taxi and for-hire vehicle trips and has provided toll rebates for drivers traveling across the Henry Hudson and Cross Bay bridges, according to amNY.
NYC’s congestion pricing program is set to begin on June 30, setting higher toll prices for vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours. The program is intended to reduce traffic, encourage the use of public transit, and reduce pollution in Manhattan’s busiest areas.
The MTA last week opened the application portals for discount and exemption plans, including for households earning less than $50,000 a year, individuals with disabilities, emergency vehicles, and others.
RELATED:
