MTA Discounts Metrocard for Holidays To Buy Our Love

The MTA has announced a special winter holiday timed promotion to show riders that it can do something with its $900 million surplus that doesn't involve building a platform over the West Side railyards or expensive security bids: DIscounted fares between Thanksgiving and New Year's. This is how they break down:

- Give a $1 discount on each $2 fare during the weekends between Thanksgiving and New Year's which turns into a...
- $1 discount on $2 fares during the entire last week of December
- Give monthly Metrocard holders an extra 4 days of riding (so, $76 for 34 days, instead of 30 days)
- Give weekly Metrocard holders an extra day ($24 for 8 days)
- Offer a $76 monthly Metrocard good for 39 days that you can buy at token booths (if you find them - ha!)

This will cost the MTA $50 million this year, and some wonder if this is really helping New Yorkers or tourists. Gothamist says both, as it will hopefully ease holiday traffic though the MTA probably looked at their ridership numbers for the past 20 winters. The MTA is considering doing this again next year, as well as putting aside $450 million for pension funds.

Do you think this discount is an effective holiday gift from the MTA? Or would you rather regift it?

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By Jen Chung in News on October 19, 2005 8:17 AM

Comments [rss]

red

It would have been much nicer if they had taken that surplus & guaranteed that they wouldn't raise our fares for another 10 years. They;re buying our love now, but in a year when they have a deficit again, they'regoing to raise the price to what? $85 for a monthly? $30 for a weekly?

Jess Beck

In reference to MissPinkKate, have you ever been standing on the subway platform, wondering why it's been 20 minutes since the last rush-hour train, when finally an announcement comes over the loudspeaker to explain, and you can't understand what they're saying? If so, you would likely understand why New Yorkers would like clearer PA systems.

Regardless, it is next to useless to New York City residents to offer discounts on weekends. I won't begin a long list of much-needed things the MTA can spend the money on. Rather, let's hope that we even get to see the few extra bucks on our Transitchecks, and that some idyllic day in the future, the MTA will actually put the interests of New York City residents first.

lawhawk

That $50 million could go towards rehabilitating stations that were previously slated to be fixed, but were taken off when the MTA was talking about coming up short. Or improving safety infrastructure on things like bridges and tunnels.

A one-shot (or two if they repeat it next year) deal is not going to amount to much if there are infrastructure failures or problems that could have been avoided but for the want of a few million dollars.

MissPinkKate

I was in Boston a few weeks ago, riding the T, and the speakers were all clear and loud. And it drove me crazy. It totally interrupted my relaxing subway ride. I hated it. I'm glad I can't hear what the conductors have to say. I don't need to hear five times a day to watch my bags.

la

If it were meant to help residents the lower fares would be in effect during the week. This helps tourists primarily (and the minority of people who have to commute to work on weekends, of course), but such people already come to NYC during the holidays and presumably don't think spending $2 for a subway ride is a big burden since a) they are probably spending more than $200/night on a hotel room and b) most Americans don't have a frame of reference for what a subway fare should cost. $2 seems pretty cheap when you only have to take the subway a few times in two or three days.

And I don't buy the reasoning that it will help encourage people to take mass transit because of high gas prices. $2 for a subway ride is still a lot cheaper than $2.75 or more for gas, parking for $40 and tolls.

It's a PR move, meant to help the MTA get some love while doing the least harm to their resources. They could have done something like pay down the debt, but that wouldn't have granted them such favorable coverage here and elsewhere.

ace

when I heard this on radio this morning my first thought was that this was window dressing and the money could be better spent cleaning up some of the stations outside of Manhattan or increasing service outside of rush hour. However, this will actually be beneficial to some riders with limited incomes, like the folks I see passing their monthly passes to a family member through the bars in order to save money.

MT

I agree with vtsnow. They should use it to pay down some debt. Maybe that will keep them from raising fares in 2007 as they continue to threaten.

tien

they should really just keep the money. then again, if they did, they would probably piss it away.

Gari N. Corp

Could they spend it on the east side subway already?

vtsnow

I know this wouldn't be the sexy thing to do with surplus money, but in addition to paying their pension obligation, why not pay down some of the MTA's debt. Over time, the money saved from reduced interest chages would probably equal the $50 million or so paid in advance.

straphanger

I'd rather regift. I get my metrocard through a corporate pre-tax program, so it likely won't affect me since I think they're purchased way in advance. I'd really rather see them upgrade the subway in a highly visible way, use the money to keep booths open later or put employees back in them, make the speaker announcements legible or SOMETHING. Taking a couple bucks off my trip won't really affect me. The article about this in amNY today says it's to "help New Yorker cope with the higher cost of gas".

Um, what? Saving a couple of hypothetical bucks on a monthly metrocard is not going to give me enough to make up the difference in my heating bill.