December 20, 2007
MTA Hikes Fares: The Great Train Robbery of 2008
With the approval of its budget yesterday, the MTA officially raised the rates on subways and buses, MTA bridges and tunnels, and commuter rails. While the increase in fare was inevitable after both Governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg approved of them, the big news today is how the MTA is actually going to bring in extra money with the bonus scheme on the pay-per-ride Metrocard for subways and buses. The base fare for a ride remains at $2, but starting March 2nd, 2008 bonuses will be 15% instead of the current 20%.
What does that mean for the riders? Messy math. Because the 15% increase will result in odd and unusable fractional fares, it's possible that riders will throw those cards away, which would effectively be giving free money to the MTA. Riders could even end up with as little as 5¢ on their card! To prevent this, you can buy cards in extremely inconvenient amounts to end up with an even dollar figure on your card. Reader wickedced came up with this formula:
$17.39 = exactly 10 ridesSince the MTA is being a pain, you can only add money in multiples of 5¢, which is where this handy dandy Metrocard bonus calculator is useful. Now if someone could only write a program for cellphones. The Times came up with a handy print-and-go chart (pictured) if you want your fare calculus in dollars, not rides. Other ways around this: you can keep adding funds to the card to build on your nickels, send a Metrocard back to the MTA to get a refund, or talk to a station attendant to get leftover money onto a new card. But what will all the tourists do with their leftovers?!? Somehow we suspect that's a lost cause and that there will be enterprising people combing discarded Metrocards for spare change.
$34.78 = exactly 20 rides
$51.27 = exactly 30 rides
$69.60 = 40 rides + 4 cents
$87.00 = 50 rides + 5 cents
The subway and bus fare hike means a 7-day pass will cost $25 (up from $24), a 30-day pass will cost $81 (up from $76) and a new 14-day pass will cost $47. Additionally, tolls will go up 3.8% and MTA commuter rail rates will go up 3.76%-4.25%. Many riders are bitter since this is the 3rd increase in fares since 2003 with some Long Island rider costs increasing nearly 30% over that period!
In a pre-hike move to possibly stem rider displeasure, some politicians called for a "Riders' Bill of Rights" to go along with the increase in fares. Councilman John Liu and Councilman Bill de Blasio penned the bill, which looks more like a Christmas wish list than something that's practical:
1. Affordable faresWhile it would be great if the MTA could satisfy all these "rights," we're just hoping for about half. Any more than that would just be wishful thinking.
2. Regular, on-time subway service
3. Immediate, accurate notifications of service changes
4. Accurate assistance in finding alternative means of transportation when service is interrupted
5. Clean trains and platforms
6. A working and understandable public address system
7. Well-trained, helpful station and train personnel
8. Working pay phones and access to cellular phone service in stations
9. A user-friendly MTA Web site that can support heavy traffic
10. A safe environment with police presence and bright lighting
Photograph of a Metrocard vending machine by phil h on Flickr
|
Wishful thinking is the best to describe the list of ten items. The public would be lucky if the MTA, after increasing the fare, provided one better solution to the above mentioned list.
I call it the two inch penis extension wish.
If the tourists were smart, they would get some form of unlimited card. I have explained this to many a tourist taking the time to figure out their needs and which sort of unlimited card would be best for them since there were no well-trained, helpful station and train personnel around just some useless MTA employee in their burgundy jacket off somewhere outside of the former token booth.
The fact that the base fare, which only a relative handful of people pay, hasn't gone up is just proves that a latter day version of the Hylan Five Cent Fare Club is working in Albany and City Hall. And we all know what the whole keeping the artificially low five cent fare got us in the long run.
The one bright spot in all this: the new two week unlimited fare card. If you were previously buying one week cards, buying the two week cards will save you money.
I think it's amazing that the MTA does everything backwards from everyone else in the world! In any other country where there's a decent transit system in place, a person SAVES money by buying a monthly metrocard! People aren't penalized for buying the month out.
Not here! The only people who actually save any money by buying a monthly (or weekly, or daily) metrocard are those who use the subway a LOT. And I mean a lot!
They just seem to be so money-grubbing here, it's really unattractive. If they treated their passengers with more respect, maybe we'd have cloth covered, cushioned seats, like in Paris or London, where the feeling is reciprocated most of the time.
I think it's amazing that the MTA does everything backwards from everyone else in the world! In any other country where there's a decent transit system in place, a person SAVES money by buying a monthly metrocard! People aren't penalized for buying the month out.
Not here! The only people who actually save any money by buying a monthly (or weekly, or daily) metrocard are those who use the subway a LOT. And I mean a lot!
They just seem to be so money-grubbing here, it's really unattractive. If they treated their passengers with more respect, maybe we'd have cloth covered, cushioned seats, like in Paris or London, where the feeling is reciprocated most of the time.
Even some of those combinations in the NYT report won't work. If you're buying your Metrocard in cash, you can only receive change in quarters and dollar coins. Therefore, the cheapest "rounded" Metrocard you can buy without the MTA stiffing you your rightful change is $40.
I wish the MTA provided better service just like everyone else but the fact is that even with these higher rates, being able to get around without a car makes the MTA a bargain compared to living in almost any other city where you will probably be paying $500 a month in automobile-related expenses.
cucarachita: "If they treated their passengers with more respect, maybe we'd have cloth covered, cushioned seats, like in Paris or London, where the feeling is reciprocated most of the time."
You really think cloth would hold up to the trashy subway riders of NYC??? We can't even keep the solid plastic clean! One coffee spill or booze induced vomiting episode and the cars would stink.
And you still save with the 30-day Metrocard... you're just saving $5 less than you were before. To buy 60 rides (assuming one rides the subway to and from a destination every day), it would cost you $120.
"People should be provided with more and stronger incentives to take public transportation more frequently, not fewer."
There are already plenty of incentives to take public transportation. What alternative do you have if you don't take MTA public transportation? Are you going to drive? Take cabs every day? Both those alternatives are a lot more expensive.
The MTA could jack up the price of the 30 day Metrocard to $200 (which is what most Londoners pay for their monthly Travelcard) and it'd still be a bargain compared to alternatives.
That is precisely what I think the MTA should do. Jack up the price of the 30 day Metrocard to $200, give people on welfare a discounted price of $50 and then start demanding better service because with that much more revenue coming in, there would be no budget shortfall to blame (unless of course the unions came in and started demanding ridiculously high salaries for jobs that any high school graduate could do; which you know they would do).
Bloomberg and Spitzer! Both Lying, Hypocritical pigs. Business as usual.
They need to privatize the system, and automate everything. The only jobs should be logistical, security, and maintenance. All trains should be automated, and there should be no ticket booths anymore. I want a real security guard with a gun in every station.
The reality is the subway has never gotten better since it was seized by the city. The IND line is still the worst in the entire system, and the 2nd Ave line will likely be just as bad, especially since it has no express service.
The city obviously cannot run the subway system - the corruption is just too severe.
Having just moved somewhere where it takes $60 to fill a gas tank (which will last 2 weeks -- and I don't even drive anywhere!), I miss my $76 Metrocard. I rode an average of 4 times a day on a bus or subway, even at $81, that's really only $0.67 per ride -- a real bargain, I say.
This is just great. The MTA fatcats keep getting richer.
Meanwhile I'm freezing my butt of in this crap apartment.
Who's going to HELP me?!?
For a starving artist, you must be doing pretty well with all that google advertising on your site, and your mass spammings of comment sections. Very clever.
here's another calculator to help you create an even metrocard balance