New York City Public Transit Price Increase: MTA Redefines

New York City Transportation Authority (MTA) finance committee chairman Larry Schwartz said the city's earlier planned increase in fares will be delayed until at least 2022. The agency made this decision due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the New York economy hard, and for many passengers the increase will be a strong financial blow. New York Daily News.

Price increases will be in 2022

“There will be no tariff increases in 2021,” Schwartz said after a meeting of the MTA finance committee. "In 2022, prices may rise."

The MTA board originally planned to raise fares last March, and held a public hearing in December on options for the increase, one of which included canceling unlimited travel on the seven-day and 30-day MetroCards.

In January of this year, MTA board members decided not to raise prices and return to discussing this issue in the summer. Then it was planned that in the summer will be approved new prices, which will come into force in November. But now the summer meeting of the MTA board has decided to postpone the increase in tariffs once again.

Pulling the hike off a second time means less money in the MTA's budget, which has already been hit hard by the decline in passenger traffic during the pandemic. At the same time, Schwartz said that the increase in tariffs will not save the situation, but will only harm the restoration of public transport passenger traffic, which is less than 50% compared to the period before the pandemic.

“I don’t think that now and in this situation, increasing fares for New Yorkers will be appropriate. While we need to increase the number of passengers, the increase in fares will do the opposite, Schwartz said. "I think it's important that New Yorkers know that there will be no tariff hikes before the end of this year."

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New York City unemployment has declined since the peak of the pandemic last year, but remains close to what it was in the years after the Great Recession (2009-20010 crisis). The city's unemployment rate stood at 10,6% in June, up from 18,8% in the same month of 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is almost the same as in 2011, when the city's unemployment rate was around 9%, but the then financial crisis did not stop the MTA board from raising fares in 2011.

The MTA has been increasing tariffs by about 4% every two years for over a decade, and 2021 should have been the year of another increase if that plan was followed.

The base rate has not been increased since 2015

The rise in prices took different forms over the years. In 2015, the MTA raised the city's base metro and bus fares from $ 2,50 to $ 2,75, which remains the same today. When the agency raised fares in 2019, they decided to keep the base fare at $ 2,75, but passengers lost the 5% bonus uploaded to MetroCard on single rides.

In January 2021, the MTA board approved a 7% increase in fares for bridges and tunnels by the agency. Traffic on bridges and tunnels is almost back to pre-pandemic levels.

Schwartz said MTA officials need to work with city and state lawmakers to find other sources of income that are “fairer” for underprivileged New Yorkers. He suggests adding a surcharge to Airbnb rentals. Other board members have campaigned for a statewide fuel tax hike for years, as some of that money goes to fund the MTA.

“We need to develop a completely new tariff structure,” Schwartz said. "There are a million ideas to explore."

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Schwartz chided Mayor de Blasio for not doing enough to promote Fair Fares, a program the city launched in 2019 that offers MetroCards at half the cost to low-income New Yorkers. There are approximately 233 city residents enrolled in the program, significantly less than the 000 participants the Community Service Society of New York estimates were enrolled in the program before the pandemic.