Community News
MTA FARES AND TOLLS
ON THE RISE THIS SPRING
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I MARCH 2019 23
BY MARK HALLUM
The MTA board may be
keeping single ride
swipes the same rate,
$2.75, for the time being,
members voted in favor of
a hike that will charge un-limited
weekly and monthly riders more to
raise funds for the beleaguered agency.
Commuters will now be up-charged
from $32 to $33 for weekly passes
while the monthly payments will go
up from $121 to $127, and the bo-nus
given to riders for every $5.50
they put on their cards will also be a
thing of the past after Wednesday’s
board meeting.
“We just implemented a fare and
toll increase – it’s painful for a lot
of reasons, for a lot of people – but
we had to do it, and it is within infla-tion.
So it wasn’t exactly a mugging,”
interim MTA Chair Fernando Ferrer
said. “However, that’s in the context
of all the other actions we are taking
and have taken with respect to trim-ming
down our own bureaucracy…
We have to step up as well.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a plan,
with the support of Mayor Bill de Blasio,
that would enact congestion pricing
while restructuring the MTA to have
term limited board members who would
be appointed by local elected officials.
But the plan also put 20 percent
inflation increase limit on fares which
would prevent MetroCard users from
bearing the brunt of any financial
troubles the agency might be in.
“It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t
consider several alternatives that
did come up through the process.
That said, I don’t think it’s appropri-ate
to continue putting off the vote
because it’s costing us money one
way or another,” board member Susan
Metzger said.
Board member Peter Ward said
any option that raises revenue with-out
impacting riders through a fare
increase would be a “grand slam,”
but acknowledged that the MTA must
act now.
“It is clear that the only way we can
make things manage today is by either
making cuts, raising taxes or raising
fares,” Ward said. “If those are the only
three options available to us, then at some
point we’re going to be continually faced
with the prospect of making some type
of cuts. Whether it’s to staff, whether it’s
to infrastructure program. At the end of
the day, we can’t cut our way out of the
problem that we have. The only way to
solve our problems is to grow revenue.”
The changes will take effect on
April 21, and will also include a 3.85
percent increase on weekly and
monthly Long Island Rail Road tickets.
Tolls will see increase by about four
percent as well starting March 31.
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