'It Seems Like A Money Grab': Residents React As LIRR Rolls Out Fare, Toll Hikes, New Policies

LONG ISLAND, NY — The MTA has recently announced that starting on Jan. 4, there will be fare increases and new policies for the Long Island Railroad.

According to the MTA, monthly and weekly tickets will increase by up to 4.5 percent across the LIRR. The monthly ticket prices will not exceed $500. All other ticket types will increase by up to 8 percent.

There will also be a shrinking of the validity window for one-way tickets, which will now expire at 4 a.m. the following day.

There was a suspension of the fare increase in 2021, and the MTA said the current cost of a monthly ticket "is about the same price of a monthly ticket in 2019 when adjusted for inflation."

An onboard surcharge is to help dissuade fare evaders, those who repeatedly show a pattern of purchasing or activating a ticket after boarding the railroad, according to the MTA. After a series of warnings in the TrainTime app, the surcharge will be posted to the customer's account, which they have to pay before using or buying another ticket. The surcharge can be paid on its own or with the next ticket purchase.

The MTA said the surcharge is aimed at "speeding up fare collection by encouraging customers to have their tickets activated and ready for inspection."

To avoid receiving any warnings and surcharges, customers need to purchase and activate tickets before they board the train, the MTA said. According to the MTA, if a device has multiple violations, the user would have to call customer service.

Long Islanders and New Yorkers have spoken to Patch about their frustration with the fare spike and onboard surcharges.

Lena Moriarty, 29, of Long Beach, said she travels often via the LIRR for work and said the costs of a train ticket do not equate with the lack of amenities.

"I think it's crazy to charge extra for a travel experience that is below average," she said regarding the surcharges. "No WiFi, no outlets, and no seats sometimes."

Derrick Weisburd, 23, of Manhasset, said he is against the new fare increases and especially the policy on activating the mobile ticket prior to boarding.

"I don't think it's completely out of the ordinary for someone to harmlessly just forget that they haven't activated their ticket until the conductor comes around, and I don't think that this constitutes such a big fine or device being blocked," he said. "As long as they had their ticket purchased and available for the conductor, then it should be honored. I just think the rule is silly and doesn't constitute for countless alternatives, and overall is just penny pinching on behalf of the MTA and shouldn't fall on the backs of riders."

The MTA said its new policy on one-way tickets being valid until 4 a.m. will limit the ability to reuse unscanned tickets for a later day, which Weinburd said he disagrees with. He said plans change, and it's a waste of money for the ticket to disappear even without activating it.

Weisburd said he's a frequent city-goer and travels into the city quite often for social reasons, and just the other night, his plans were canceled midday. He had already bought an off-peak ticket earlier that morning and said that with the new one-way ticket policy that will go into effect in January, that ticket would have been money down the drain.

"It comes across as very anti-consumer, as someone who frequently uses the system," he said.

In regard to activating a ticket before boarding, Weisburd said he disapproves: "Are they really at a loss if my $13 goes unchecked once every 7 months or so?"

He shared that his device got banned from the MTA app after they flagged him for activating his ticket in a different zone than his home station. He said he needs to call customer service.

"I've been only able to buy physical tickets as the process to get your device reinstated is difficult," he said. "This has been extremely frustrating, as honestly, the last thing on my mind after an 8-hour shift in an office is opening my app and pressing an activation button after I had already paid full price for the ticket at 7 a.m. that morning. I think in addition to deactivating user accounts, adding a surcharge for this is a little absurd considering we've all already paid the money to the MTA for our tickets, just simply didn't press the last button to activate them prior to the conductor coming around to scan them."

He said it could be possible that he missed the warnings, but he believes he didn't receive any follow-up emails after an initial notice a while ago.

Nicole Knight, 34, is a New Yorker who has taken the LIRR many times.

"There are many reasons why people cannot activate their ticket from their phone, needing to charge to there being no service in the station or tunnel, and not being able to activate until we are out of the tunnel," she said. "Also, there are times the ticket takers don't come around, so why would one waste a ticket. This is pure greed from the MTA during a time when service is poor, and riders are struggling already."

She is calling for greater clarity from the MTA on its fare increases.

"I would like to see an audit of the MTA that clearly shows where these fare increases are going, with a fully itemized breakdown," she said. "A lack of transparency is a big reason many of us are frustrated by the repeated increases."

For those who aren't from Long Island and use the LIRR seldom, it can also be challenging to navigate.

"As someone who is not used to traveling on the LIRR, it can be confusing and stressful," an out-of-towner said. "I'm always going to pay my fare, but activating my ticket on the train gives me a sense of security that I made it to the right train and direction. Not only is it burdensome and stressful for those who don't take the LIRR, but it also feels unnecessary. It seems like a money grab."

In response to concerns from residents and to help assure Long Islanders that these changes will be for the better, Janno Lieber, MTA Acting Chair and CEO since July 2021, gave a comment during Wednesday's board meeting.

"The first thing I'd say to Long Islanders, maybe the most important thing, is the monthlies are still lower in cost in real terms than they were before COVID," he began. "Go to a diner of your choice and figure out what else has gone down in price since before COVID. Not many things. Even where we're doing the 2 percent annual fare increases, we're staying well below inflation, so the fare model has been great. The rest of the country's mass transit is looking at 20 plus percent fare increases just in New Jersey this year. The past year, they've done 20 percent fare increase in effect. New York, including Long Island, is doing really well. MTA customers are doing really well in the fare increase category."

He continued to dive into how Long Islanders are responding to the new technology and policies.

"Yes, we are adjusting the system in part because we've all very quickly adapted to the tap and ride, the paperless approach, and we need a new fare collection system that is more consistent with that reality," he said. "That is why we're changing how fares are collected a little bit, because as we've moved into tap and ride, and we did it very successfully and very quickly, folks in Long Island love the TrainTime app. We found there was a lot of unintentional fare evasion and even some opportunistic fare evasion, and we're adjusting to that. Everybody has confidence this is a fair system."

In a board meeting from September, the MTA shared that they spoke with the public and considered their concerns when proposing these new policies– one concern being to make paying the fare more convenient and transparent.

Deputy Chief of the MTA Jessie Lazarus spoke at the board meeting. "The Blue-Ribbon Panel recommended that we address that opportunistic fare evasion from customers who are waiting to activate train time tickets with the hope of reusing that ticket for a second trip," Lazarus said. "Of course, this gamification is an unintended consequence of train time's remarkable success, but we now need to deal with it because it's impacting fare collection."

She continued to explain the new policies and how they will affect riders. "To address this initially, we proposed that all tickets would activate upon purchase and be valid for four hours," she said. "Even though 90 percent of one-way tickets are used within four hours of purchase, we did hear a lot from customers who said this change would prevent them from maintaining that day of flexibility or spontaneity that they do value a lot with their commuter railroad travel. So, we're adjusting the proposal to accommodate customers whose plans change or those who want to feel a bit more flexible. Now, tickets will be valid until 4 a.m. the next day."

Below is a recap of some of the upcoming ticketing policy changes, according to the MTA:

• Onboard surcharges for late mobile ticket purchases and activations. These surcharges will vary based on zone. Customers who repeatedly purchase or activate mobile tickets on board would be subject to the surcharge after an escalating series of warnings.
• The surcharge for tickets purchased onboard from a conductor will increase by $2. There will be an equivalent surcharge for tickets purchased or activated onboard using the TrainTime app.
• Unlimited Day Pass. This new Day Pass will be available to purchase for unlimited daily travel, replacing the round-trip ticket. On weekdays, it will cost 10 percent less than two one-way peak tickets, and on weekends, it will cost the same as two one-way off-peak tickets.
• Reduced-fare tickets for people with disabilities, people on Medicare, and seniors, including on morning peak trips.
• The eligibility age for a Family Fare ticket will be raised from 11 to 17 years old. This means children aged 5 to 17 years old will be able to ride for $1 when accompanied by a fare-paying adult, including on morning peak trips.
• One-way tickets will be valid until 4 a.m. the next day. All one-way tickets, both paper and mobile, will expire at that time the day after purchase. Current one-way tickets are valid for 60 days. The MTA said the new validity period allows riders to plan ahead and purchase tickets before upcoming trips, while limiting the opportunity to reuse an un-scanned ticket for a later trip.

The proposed fares in each zone, including the Day Pass price for each zone, can be found online.