New Yorkers May Pay as Much as $104 a Month for Subway Pass Under MTA Plan
New York City subway and bus users may pay $10 more for a limited monthly pass or an added $15 for unlimited rides under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s proposals to boost revenue.
The board of the MTA, whose 8.5 million weekday riders make it the largest U.S. mass-transit system, voted to hold public hearings in September on a menu of fare and toll proposals aimed at raising revenue by 7.5 percent next year. The board also approved cutting 200 station agents.
“This is not a situation that we’ve created, it’s not a situation that’s occurring because our expenses are up,” Jay H. Walder, the MTA’s chairman and chief executive officer, said at the board’s meeting today in New York. “It’s a situation that’s occurring because our subsidies have not been there.”
The MTA’s $12 billion budget has suffered from declines in real estate taxes and state subsidies. Collections from a payroll tax in the 12 counties served by the MTA are about $386 million less than initial estimates. The state has cut $143 million in MTA aid to help close its own $9.2 billion budget gap.
The proposed fare increases come as the MTA has cut service and trimmed its workforce to help close a budget deficit of more than $900 million this year. The MTA raised fares for single rides on buses and subways to $2.25 from $2 last year.
‘More for Less’
“Riders are being asked to pay more for less given the tens of millions of dollars of service cuts the MTA just put into effect in late June,” said Gene Russianoff, an attorney with the Straphangers Campaign, an advocate for transit-system users.
The new financial plan also includes raising fares on the MTA’s Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road lines by as much as 9.4 percent and increasing some bridge tolls to $6 from $5.50.
The one-way toll for the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn would rise to $12 from $11.
One MTA proposal would cap unlimited monthly Metro Cards at 90 trips and raise the price to $99 from $89. Another would maintain a monthly Metro Card with no limit, while raising the price to $104 from $89. A seven-day Metro Card capped at 22 trips would rise to $28 from $27, while an unlimited weekly card would go to $29 from $27.
Average Use
Monthly unlimited Metro Card users have a median household income of $63,000 and average 59 trips, the MTA said. Weekly transit-pass users have a median household income of $38,000.
A rider using the 90-trip maximum on a monthly Metro Card costing $99 would pay $1.10 per ride, or $1.15 less than the base fare. About 7 percent of riders take more than 90 rides a month.
The toll and fare increases would raise an additional $413 million for the MTA next year. The transit agency also aims to save about $500 million by cutting its workforce by 5 percent, to 66,292, and freezing wages for two years unless employee unions agree to change work rules or contributions to health care. Wages and benefits account for two-thirds of the MTA’s operating expenses.
John Samuelson, head of the Transport Workers Union, criticized the MTA’s financial plan and said Walder should cut his own compensation, which includes salary of $350,000 a year.
“Give yourself a pay cut,” Samuelson said. “Go after your own pension. Go after your own medical benefits.”
New-Card Surcharge
The MTA is also proposing a $1 surcharge on new Metro Cards to encourage riders to refill old ones, which will save an estimated $13 million in printing and litter-removal costs.
The MTA, which has to close a $1.1 billion budget gap in 2011, agreed to raise revenue by 7.5 percent in 2011 and 2013 as part of a state bailout package last year.
Debt service accounts for $2.1 billion of the MTA’s budget and is expected to increase 24 percent to $2.6 billion in 2014. The transit agency plans on selling $8.1 billion in bonds for capital projects in the next four years.
The MTA must curb its borrowing and re-examine the transit agency’s $26.3 billion capital program or face continued stress on the operating budget, said board member Doreen Frasca.
“Debt and the capital program are the seven-ton elephants in the room that we don’t talk about,” said Frasca. “We throw a blanket over it, we think we’ve covered it, but I think maybe at best we put a string bikini on the elephant.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Martin Z. Braun in New York at mbraun6@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page