MTA Locks In $3 Subway Fare To Start In January

By Jose Martinez, The City

October 1, 2025

The cost of a single subway, bus or paratransit ride will hit $3 for the first time come January, after the MTA board on Tuesday approved the latest in a series of every-other-year increases.

The MTA had avoided hitting the 3-buck milestone in recent years, despite previous proposals to reach the mark that stretched back nearly a decade.

MTA Chairperson and Chief Executive Janno Lieber acknowledged that any bump in fares is “always painful,” while contrasting what amounts to a 2% annual increase with double-digit fare hikes elsewhere in the country.

“As we always say, transit is one of the things that makes NY affordable,” Lieber said. “Let’s start talking about housing and childcare and the other things that are clearly the center of that affordability crisis.”

Lieber pointed to a double-digit fare increase last year at New Jersey Transit and at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, where a 21.5% fare hike kicked in Sept. 14.

Officials also noted how transportation costs are lower in New York City than in almost all major U.S. cities — and flagged how the fare increase could have sent the cost of a single ride surging to $3.14.

“If we had actually followed the rate of inflation over the last two years, we would be asking you for a 24-cent increase to the base fare today,” Jessie Lazaruz, the agency’s deputy chief for commercial ventures, told the board prior to the 11-0 approval, with two members abstaining.

Instead, the MTA stuck to a pattern of what agency officials call “small and predictable” fare increases every other year.

Accompanying bumps will come for reduced-fare bus, subway and Access-A-Ride service, with the cost per ride going up 5 cents to $1.50 and the cost of express bus service that links the boroughs with Manhattan going from $7 to $7.25. The last fare increase came in 2023, when it went from $2.75 to the current $2.90 mark.

The vote also locked in a fare cap under the tap-and-go OMNY fare-payment system, ensuring that riders will pay no more than $35 for rides within a seven-day period, while reduced-fare riders will be capped at $17.50. That will permanently replace the unlimited-ride options available under the 7-Day and 30-Day MetroCard, as well unlimited passes for express buses.

The MTA earlier this week dropped the seven-day fare cap a buck from an earlier proposal of $36, citing the response of riders during the six-week public comment period that followed the July unveiling of the fare proposal.

“That feedback has helped us modify our proposals,” Lazarus said.

Transit officials said the increases — which will also kick in on Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road — are essential for the agency’s bottom line, with two-thirds of the agency’s operating expenses going to labor costs associated with its 70,000 employees.

“It’s real simple, 70% of the MTA’s operating budget goes to pay their workers their medical coverage, their benefits and their pensions,” Lieber said. “Their wages increase, on average, between 3% and 4% a year, it varies a little bit — we now have a 2% per year fare increase.”

The Citizens Budget Commission noted that labor also has a part to play in the MTA’s financial well-being.

Adam Schmidt, a senior research associate with the non-partisan think tank, cited ongoing labor talks with Long Island Rail Road workers and a looming labor showdown next spring with the Transport Workers Union.

“Both sides should pursue work role changes that increase productivity and operational flexibility so the MTA can continue to provide reliable service and fair wage increases,” he said.

Lieber also acknowledged that the ‘pizza principle’ — a theory that the cost of a subway ride and the slice of pizza should be about the same — no longer holds.

“I don’t know what the pizza principle would dictate at this point because folks have told me that we’re less than a slice in many cases,” he said. “Certainly at Totonno’s or some of the other great Brooklyn pizzerias that I favor, the slice has gone north of $3.”

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.