MTA Board Adopts New Fares and Tolls

MTA Board Adopts New Fares and Tolls, Holds Base Subway, Bus & Paratransit Fare Flat – Follows Newly Announced Reforms, Cost Cutting Measures and Dramatically Improved Performance

Increases Kept Below Rate of Inflation – New Fares Take Effect April 21; New Tolls Take Effect March 31;

Vote Comes in Wake of Comprehensive Reform And Cost Cutting Proposal Release This Morning;

 Earlier This Week, MTA Announced Dramatically Improved Service – Subway On-Time Performance at Four Year Best, Demonstrating Success of Subway Action Plan 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board today adopted a slate of fare and toll changes that hold the base subway, bus and paratransit fare unchanged at $2.75, while yielding a much-needed increase in MTA revenue of approximately 4 percent, below the rate of inflation. The 30-day unlimited ride MetroCard will increase by 5 percent, to $127, and the 7-day unlimited ride MetroCard will increase 3.1 percent, to $33.

Earlier today, MTA leaders announced critical cost reduction and reform initiatives, which can be found here.  Earlier this week, the MTA released new data showing a dramatic improvement in service.  On the subway, weekday on-time performance in January was 76.7 percent, marking a significant increase from the January 2018 on-time performance of 58.1 percent.  Weekday major incidents – unplanned incidents causing 50 or more delays – were also drastically down last month, with 52 compared to 105 in January 2018.

The fare and toll changes, which are below the annual inflation rate of 2 percent and in keeping with the MTA’s past practice of regularized, limited, predictable fare increases every other year, are expected to bring an additional yearly revenue of $336 million.  The increase comes on the heels of comprehensive reform and cost cutting proposals released this morning.

“This additional funding is critically important to the MTA but it is not enough to allow us to fund our capital plan or close our operating deficit,” said MTA Acting Chair Fernando Ferrer. “We’ve seen dramatically improved performance of our system recently and in order to keep that up we are making major internal reforms, seeking additional recurring revenues from our state and city partners, and urging the legislature to pass the governor’s congestion pricing proposal.”

New fares go into effect April 21, and new tolls go into effect March 31.

The new fare structure eliminates the 5 percent bonus discount that is applied to MetroCard purchases of $5.50 or more. Express bus fare increases to $6.75. The 7-Day Express Bus Plus MetroCard will be $62.

For more details on new fares for New York City subways, buses, paratransit and the Staten Island Railway, please visit this page.
Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad
Increases for weekly and monthly tickets for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, which are based on distance traveled and time of day, are capped at 3.85 percent. The maximum increase for monthly tickets is $15, and for weekly tickets is $5.75. Monthly tickets that are $460 are not increasing. One-way ticket prices are generally increasing by 4 percent, with increases of more than 6 percent capped at no more than 50 cents.

There will be no fare increase for Metro-North’s Pascack Valley Line and Port Jervis Line, which are operated through a contract with NJ Transit.

For more details on new fares for the Long Island Rail Road, please visit here. For more details on new fares for Metro-North Railroad, please visit here.

 

MTA Bridges and Tunnels
Tolls at the MTA’s seven bridges and two tunnels, for those who use an E-ZPass issued by the New York Customer Service Center (NYCSC), are increasing by 6 percent, effective March 31. Tolls for those who do not have an E-ZPass, or have one issued by a different entity are rising by 11.8 percent.

Car tolls for the MTA’s major crossings, will rise to $6.12 for New York Customer Service Center (NYCSC) E-ZPass customers and $9.50 for others. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is free in the eastbound direction. New westbound tolls for those who are not part of the Staten Island resident discount programs reflect the round-trip tolls at the other major crossings, $12.24 for NYCSC E-ZPass and $19 for others. Staten Island resident discount participants toll will be $6.88 for more than three trips per month or $7.26 for up to two trips per month.

More details on the new tolls, including Rockaway resident discount programs on the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, and Staten Island resident discount programs on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, please visit here.

Author: Harlem Valley News