Travel in New York transport will rise in price: when and how much

The fare for buses and metro will rise by 4%. Tolls for bridges and tunnels will increase by 8%. The MTA also plans to phase out unlimited travel on the MetroCard. The agency is going to implement such changes at a time when hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are experiencing acute financial shortages amid the pandemic. The edition writes about it Daily News.

Fare in public transport in New York will rise by 4% starting in the spring of 2021. The Council of the Moscow Transport Department voted for such a decision on Wednesday, November 18.

In the next two months, officials of the transit department will consider a list of proposals to achieve this goal.

One idea is to keep the basic metro and bus fare at $ 2,75, while eliminating the 7- and 30-day unlimited passes.

Another idea is to raise the base rate to $ 2,85.

Other proposed options include raising the surcharge for new MetroCards from $ 1 to $ 3 and a ban on coin-based travel on buses.

Over the next two months, MTA will educate the public about the new tariffs and the board is expected to make a final decision in January. After that, it will take six to eight weeks for the price changes to take effect.

The rejection of unlimited MetroCards is partly due to the fact that, due to the pandemic, fewer and fewer passengers were buying cards worth $ 33 for a seven-day pass and $ 127 for a 30-day pass.

Unlimited card usage among all passengers dropped to 34%, down from 51% in 2019, the MTA said.

The idea to cancel unlimited cards was supported by Larry Schwartz, chairman of the MTA finance committee. “At the moment I am in favor of canceling temporary passes because I believe there is a lot of fraud associated with them,” Schwartz said. Who buys these seven-day passes?

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Schwartz argues that the $ 2,75 base fare is more commonly used by New Yorkers who are dependent on transit, and that "random passengers" buy unlimited passes.

According to Schwartz, tariffs for regular passengers, which depend on the system, should not be raised. “This is why I love freezing the $ 2,75 New York subway fare when canceling passes temporarily,” he explained.

To achieve a 4% increase in fares on the Long Island Metro and Railways, the MTA could raise ticket prices per trip by more than 4% while maintaining the price of monthly and weekly passes.

Transit officials will also consider a full overhaul railway tariffsby creating three ticket classes: one for travel that starts and ends within the city, another for travel exclusively within the city, and the third for travel between city and suburbia.

Fare over bridges and tunnels will grow by 8%, officials say. According to one MTA proposal, drivers will pay $ 6,70 more for each move. Another proposal is for variable tariffs on bridges and tunnels, which will allow motorists to charge higher fares in the most congested conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undermined the financial health of the MTA. As previously reported, service on the New York subway and buses could be cut by almost half. Concerning more than 9 thousand agency employees run the risk of being unemployed... The MTA budget is proposed to be cut by $ 1,1 billion, which corresponds to a 40 percent cut in metro service on weekdays.

The agency is ready to reconsider its plans only if it receives $ 12 billion from the federal government.

ITA chairman Pat Foye said tariff increases are absolutely necessary due to the agency's financial position - even though hundreds of thousands of city dwellers have been left without income due to the pandemic. “The reason we raise fees and rates every two years is to provide customer service and to be able to deliver services,” Foy said. "We are well aware that many New Yorkers are suffering."