On March 22, the base of a New York City bus or subway ride will increase a quarter.
Sigh.
MTA board members acknowledged that the riding public probably won't embrace the fare hike. But they say relatively modest increases are necessary to maintain the financial health of the system. "I think you all came up with a plan that frankly does the least damage to the largest number of folks," said city transportation commissioner Polly Trottenberg, who also sits on the MTA board.
Her fellow board member Andrew Albert agreed. "It's not ever easy to raise fares, and it is always going to hurt a certain group of people," he said, "but the health of the system is paramount — as it is paramount to the health of the entire region."
Perhaps that is cold comfort. But before you fixate on the jump from $2.50 to $2.75, the MTA wants you to think about something. Very few people actually pay the base fare. About 93 percent of riders use unlimited cards, or MetroCards that they've loaded enough rides on to get a bonus. Under the new plan, the bonus is going up to 11 percent. That drops the effective fare to...$2.48, just 10 cents more than the current effective fare.
As MTA board member Fernando Ferrer put it on Thursday, in that mindset, the fares "will rise but a dime."
The agency acknowledged it needs to do a better job of explaining the value of the bonus to riders. MTA chief Tom Prendergast said "there's a certain percentage of the riding public that don't understand the bonus, and don't understand the value it brings to them."
Here's what the new fare structure will look like. It takes effect March 22.
