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So, the MTA offered some more information about the kinds of fare hikes they want to see. According to CityRoom, "Not only is it seeking an 8 percent increase in revenue from fares and tolls, to take effect July 2009, but also an additional 5 percent to take effect by January 2011 — for a cumulative increase of 13.4 percent over just 18 months."
While MTA CEO Eliot Sander said, "I recognize that what we are proposing is difficult, but our challenges are sobering," the Daily News reports that board members said the "authority can do more to find savings - but others conceded that the MTA can't cut its way out of the financial crisis."
How that translates to riders is unclear, but given that the hoped-for 8% increase in revenue after a 2009 fare hike is expected to come from a 25-cent increase in the base fare, so perhaps in 2011 the MTA will tinker with discounting and unlimited Metrocards fare hikes similar to this year. And he Times has an editorial today, saying the MTA really needs help, "Legislators, especially those in Albany, bear an even greater responsibility to help after they rejected a congestion-pricing plan that would have brought the M.T.A. $500 million in additional funds annually. They spurned it anyway, leaving the M.T.A. to rattle a cup and riders to reach ever deeper into their pockets."
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$5 Subway Ride in 2020?
anybody want to start a pool?
Hopefully with all this new gas price drama congress will start providing more adequate funding for mass transit in this country. Right now funding by both washington and albany is woefully inadequate. With an increase in funding, maybe the 2011 fare hike can be avoided.
F+*k MTA! they dont they go to Europe and learn how to manage a subway system????
Sure, spiritross, but that's $5 for one way subway ride.
Need money? Cut some bloated salaries.
What pieces of shit.
Two words: union concessions
now when you get raped on the subway , it's by the MTA and the rapists. Oh what fun.
f*cking TWU
bust the union
disgraceful, an outrage. The city elders should be ashamed.
I like how they blame it on congestion pricing. For one thing, congestion pricing was a proposal, so they shouldn't have been counting on that money to begin with. For another, the pitch at the time was that congestion pricing was going to IMPROVEMENTS to mass transit in NYC, not just help them stay afloat. The MTA are incompetent thieves and morons who shouldn't be allowed to manage a lemonade stand and, with a few exceptions, TWU employees are the worst of what's bad about unions, lazy, surly workers with full job security who don't even pretend to give a damn.
I was in London last month and it was £4 for a single ride. And the Paris subway is barely even a rail - the cars run on big tires. Maybe heavy rail is just a bitch to pay for?
Part of this is a bit of brinkmanship to get Albany and City Hall to contribute more.
"go to Europe and learn how to manage a subway system"
Privatize and pay $5 a ride fares? They have nicer looking subway systems because they charge a lot more for rides...and they calculate fares based on distance as well. This is what you want?
We're damn lucky already we can go nearly anywhere on the city for $2...I don't know of any other city that can say that.
Don't get me wrong, I think transit systems in Europe do a lot of things that we could stand to emulate (real-time train info, for instance), but the deal we have ($2 to get anywhere in the system, 24/7) is pretty good in comparison.
Eastside Access. You think they are getting crap for the Path station at WTC b/c it only serves 500k a day? LIRR to GCT will affect 160,000 people a day, in a city of 8.25 million. It is costing $6 billion. That is $6 BILLION, for 160,000 people.
I agree JMH. Granted, our system is not perfect, but its a better deal than with most of the World's Subways. Also I'd like to add that no other subway system has dedicated express lines as New York has. And no subway system has anywhere close to this many stations (450+)
New Yorkers just like to complain. If all the problems that were posted on these posts were solved, they'd STILL find something to nag about.
Somebody Call the WAHHHHHHBULANCE! Wahhhhh boohoo :'-(
The idea that with a budget of the size they have that they can't trim their own fat is absurdly unbelievable.
If they need more revenue, they should abandon idiotic pilots like the BX12 "select bus." If they need more revenue, they should make it impossible for bus riders to skip paying their fare by getting on the bus through the back door, or at least punish bus drivers who don't seem to care this happens as often as it does.
People can't afford to live here because our rents are so high, even in the crappy neighborhoods. Now we can't afford to travel anyplace else? What's left but to leave?
You're right, Stackmaster. It is definitely time to leave.
@sidenote
Paris subway is on tires for a smoother more comfortable ride. Plus it is quieter and prevents these awful screeches some of the cars have when they brake at a station.
However, it is true that subways are really expensive everywhere, even when they are highly subsidized like in France.
** You want a subway system with a base cash fare of $2.50? (Paris) $2.75? (Madrid) $3.25? (Berlin) $8? (London) **
Sorry but in Madrid a single ride cost 1,10€ and thats less than 2$
Yeah, system in Europe doesnt run 24/7 its more expensive than Nyc (not Madrid, but London, where everything is damn more expensive)
Come and see the Madrid system, clean, lot of spain, fast, silent, never late, real-time information, and the coverage of the city is as big as the Nyc one..
Madrid is a smaller city than New York, so no, it does not offer as much coverage. The New York Subway has 468 stations and 656 miles of track. The Madrid subway has 231 stations and 176 miles of track. The Madrid system also charges 1 euro every time you enter a different "zone", and there are no free transfers between trains. Would you rather pay $1.30 every time you go between boroughs or neighborhoods or switch trains on your journey or a flat $2? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid_Subway#Fares) The Madrid system also does not operate 24 hours. New Yorkers do get a good deal, but the compromise is a system so large and complex it's hard to do anything beyond maintain the system.