MTA Threatens Fare Hikes As NYC Subway Struggles

NEW YORK, NY — New Yorkers' crappy commutes could soon get more expensive. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is expecting to hike fares and tolls by 4 percent in 2019 and 2021 as it faces budget gaps in coming years, the agency's finance chief said Wednesday.

That means the subway fare could eventually cost nearly $3 if the current price of $2.75 increases by 8 percent.

But it could be worse — 4 percent is lower than the projected inflation rates for each of those two-year periods, said Chief Financial Officer Robert Foran. Any fare hike would be subject to public hearings and MTA Board approval.

"Frankly, we could’ve said, 'Let’s put a higher number there,'" Foran told the board Wednesday. "But I think it's important ... these are the same numbers that we’ve been putting out there to the public. I think we got to hold ourselves to something that we put out there and try to figure out how to save money or do it another way."

The MTA committed to fare hikes every two years in 2009. The last increases came in 2017, when the authority kept the base subway and bus fare flat but raised prices for unlimited MetroCards, commuter railroads and tolls on bridges and tunnels.

The struggling transit agency faces a $634 million budget gap in 2022 even with the planned fare and toll hikes. But the deficit would grow to a whopping $1.6 billion in that year if fares and tolls don't increase and the agency doesn't hit its savings targets, according to Foran's presentation.

MTA figures show subway and bus ridership fell 2.7 percent in 2017 from the 2016 level. The beleaguered authority was declared to be in a “state of emergency” last year.

The MTA's 2019-2022 financial plan includes about $1.5 billion worth of "significant additional investments," largely due to various "action plans" for the subways, city buses, Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road, Foran said.

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)