MTA Board Delays Vote On Fare Hikes

NEW YORK — The MTA Board postponed its planned vote on fare hikes Thursday to take a closer look at whether the increases are necessary. The board will consider whether to raise fares again in February.

"In the next month we will be considering not only what is before us but all the other alternatives, consulting widely among the board, as well as stakeholders," Acting MTA Chairman Fernando Ferrer said.

The beleaguered transit agency committed to raising fares and tolls every two years in 2009. The board is considering two proposals to implement them this year.

One would keep the subway and bus fare at $2.75 and eliminate the bonus that comes with buying two fares. The other would raise the base fare to $3 and provide a 10 percent bonus with a $6 purchase.

As the MTA faced political pressure over the planned hikes, some board members said the agency should take the extra time to determine whether it needs to burden riders with higher prices.

"I’m concerned that we’re making a decision today when we need to be a little bit slower, a little bit more thoughtful and need to consider a few more options," said board member Peter Ward, an appointee of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Veronica Vanterpool, one of Mayor Bill de Blasio's appointees to the board, seconded Ward's motion to table the fare increase.

The move came despite past warnings from the MTA's chief financial officer, Robert Foran, that the MTA's budget deficit could eventually ballon to $1.6 billion if 4 percent fare hikes don't go through this year and in 2021.

Cuomo, who controls the MTA, has criticized the agency's bureaucracy and diffuse structure for weeks. He cast doubt on the need for fare hikes in a Tuesday interview with The New York Times, saying he has "no faith in what they say."

"Money alone solves nothing, period," the Democratic governor said Wednesday on WNYC. "Just throwing more money into the tracks is not going to make a difference without the management reform."

Advocates and politicians have pushed back on the fare hike plan. Opponents have argued straphangers should not have to bear a cost increase before state lawmakers create a new funding stream for the MTA such as congestion pricing, a plan to toll vehicles entering parts of Manhattan.

"The transit system is valuable to all New Yorkers and riders shouldn't bear the brunt of a generation of state disinvestment," the advocacy group Riders Alliance said Thursday on Twitter.

Ward suggested that the board establish a working group to examine the fare hike like those that have focused on paratransit and procurement.

Larry Schwartz, another Cuomo appointee, supported that idea, but said future hikes should be tied to performance improvements.

"We need to change the thinking and the culture of how we operate the system to make sure that there's clear performance metrics tied to any potential future fare increase to kind of give some level of trust and confidence to the ridership that we're going to continue to move forward on a path of greater reliability of the system that they depend on," Schwartz said.

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)