Fear of the $100+ Metrocard

When the price goes up to $5, I will ride a bicycle to work when the road is not wet or iced up.

Ok, so I can survive $107/month. But what's to stop them from raising it to $120 next year?

mzungu: This is a bit dramatic. Riding the train at 4 am means a longer commute time. It's a given. You know trains run less frequently, you know that's when they do maintenance. The system is open 24 hours a day. Construction and repairs have to be done sometimes. If you are so "tired", wandering around at 4 am, you might want to consider a few less cocktails and a cab or think about staying closer to home. No one requires you to go downtown to party (or if they do, consider Brooklyn, I never have problems getting home at 4 am but I always carry a flask).

Commuters may pay an extra $20/month. That's only 4.5 Starbucks drinks, 2 cocktails, part of your cable bill, your internet service for your phone. Surely people who can and do buy monthly cards can trim their budget a bit (myself included).

I do agree the $2 should increase as well, but many people who cannot afford $81 a pop often buy smaller increment and per ride cards. They are not just used by tourists. They are often used for people who can only spring for a few bucks at a time.

In 104 years, the fare has only been risen from $.5 to $2.

Somehow, someone is going to get screwed. It's just the reality.

"Make the 30 day $120 and fucking ADD service. $4 a day isn't going to kill anyone."

maybe its not going to kill YOU but try looking past your nose. how could you be so ignorant to think that there are not people in this city already struggling with the $80 monthly pass? As the city keeps cutting jobs and house holds keep losing income the extra expense will be come an even bigger burden. get a clue.

i agree with whitecastle

The service is a disgrace. I live off the A and the 1 line. Besides the ridiculously slow service and constant route changes, I can't stay out late at night or it can take me literally 3 hours to get home.

You wait forever for a train, then the 1 kicks you off at 137th for 40+minutes in a station so full of people you can't move while trains keep unloading more passengers, waiting for the single train that will continue uptown.

The A is no better. Again, you wait forever for a train, then you pray the train will make the stops and not kick you out to look for a bus.

Yeah wandering around at that hour of the morning, exhausted. real safe.

Over a hundred dollars is outrageous. I am totally at the MTAs mercy. Even if I did bike the 11-12 miles from my apt to the office everyday, come rain or snow, there's no where safe to lock a bike.

I completely agree they should hike the single fare riders. Those of us that live and work here but can't afford to live in the neighborhoods we work should not be penalized.

I would rather walk or bike 7 miles a day than give those crooks another fucking cent. The trains and stations are in deplorable shape, surplus or deficit aside. The "service" they offer is disgraceful. FUCK them

A monthly will still be a bargain. I am at $.75 per ride (and I use 3 train lines each time) right now with a montly. That's a steal.

Even at $107 with no service cuts, I come in under a dollar--$.99--a ride. That is still a fantastic deal. Especially when compared to total cost of a drive (maintenance, gas, energy, traffic, etc). Save for a bike, I cannot find a way to get so many places so quickly at $.99 a ride.

Even people who just do the normal 2 trips a day, pay just $1.91 (up from $1.45 now) on a $107 without service cuts monthly. Still under the current base rate and not too insanely high.

@18-- I also think there was a surplus because of higher than expected revenue from real estate taxes. TheMTA gets a cut of all real estate transactions, and when there aren't as many deals (like during this economy), they don't make as much from that revenue stream.

this is fucking ridiculous. i have to take the train every morning and i have no idea what i will do if i can't afford to take it anymore. walk 70 blocks? them raising the monthly last year really pissed me off. i simply can't afford to pay more. they need to raise that stupid single ride and the weekly ones -- the only ones who use that are the fanny-pack wearing blue haired tourists with the maps. you know the ones... they walk so slowly down the stairs that i always miss my train.

Novanglus your question is critically flawed. In this country, we are the government. The us/them dichotomy you use just doesn't exist when you're talk about people/government.

If the budget at my place of employment was doing as badly as the MTA's, we'd be investigated by smart people with no patience.

When I travel to New York, I always buy a daily card. I think it is a bargain. I live in Ohio and have to pay for a car payment, car insurance and gas to get around (gas alone costs me at least $100 a month). If a monthly card goes $107 that breaks down to $3.57 cents per day. Even the daily rate of $9.50 is not bad. It costs less than taking a taxi. If I lived in New York, I would consider myself lucky to have such tranportation. We don't have the subway here and you don't want to ride the bus anywhere.

Have Toussant and the workers who went on the illegal strike pay their fines that were in the millions.

The surplus was in 2003 and the MTA had two sets of books but still passed the fare hike. They are corrupt to the max.

I am so angry at Wall Street and the government for screwing us all. Some day we will overthrow their asses and start a new government that really is -- for the people.

So what are the poor folk supposed to do? Food and rent are up. Now bus & subway fares? How do people think that all the service workers & working poor in this city will afford this?

Single rides in London are FOUR FUCKING POUNDS. Why? Because only people who don't NEED the subway pay single ride. The MTA should stop fucking around and crank the single ride in NY to $4, at least, and give the daily commuters a break.

Make the 30 day $120 and fucking ADD service. $4 a day isn't going to kill anyone.

they shouldn't raise the monthly card and should not raise senior citizen rates. Also the daily and weekly should be increase more since tourists are using them as well.

Excuse my ignorance, but can anyone please explain to me:

What happened to the published 2007 SURPLUS from MTA? How do they go from surplus to emergency mode???

Dumb*ss MTA. They proudly spent millions when upgrading from tokens to cards, yet remained obsolete from the start. Most civilised transit systems, even PATH (inexplicably) swallow & then regurgitate a card on the other side/keep it when it's spent. MTA relishes people swiping & swiping (other being doubly charged) & then cares not about discarded Metro cards.

It's all just ridiculous. They all knew this was coming. I heard when I moved here three years ago, "We have a surplus, but don't worry soon there will be a massive debt", and I felt like just watched it hit them.

And now they're planning on less service for a higher price. Great.

100 bucks a month on top of rent here in NYC would be...difficult.

WHY IS IT THAT OUR GOVERNMENT FAILS US WITH THEIR BUDGETING, AND INSTEAD OF FIXING THEIR PROBLEM, THEY GIVE US THE BILL?!

Sorry. I just can't emphasize that enough.

#2 - that would be nice: if Americans actually took a stand against the government that rips them off on a daily basis.

But most Americans can hardly get out to vote (the recent election was a bit of an anomaly) and when they do vote, they have difficulty seeing beyond the 2 main brands offered -- Coke and Pepsi (otherwise known as our country's 2-party system).

And Coke and Pepsi won't significantly change anything. They like it the way it is - both parties prop each other up (under the pretense of opposing each other). And the Mass Media doesn't want to upset the apple cart; they know where things stand with either Coke or Pepsi.

A revolution would be nice, but as long as Americans have their flat screens, large easy chairs and Mickey D's, they are not about to hit the streets protesting.

Bottomless... they're raising prices but cutting service.

It never should have come to this.

what a bunch of crap.

I agree completely. But they know that the price is inelastic. People need to go to and fro.

But the $107 figure is without service cuts. I'm fine with that. I'd pay more for car payments those taxes associated, and pay through gas and gas taxes if I were to move out of NYC than I do through NYS and NYC taxes plus the fare of $107.

It angers me that we just accept that the MTA has a failing budget. Where are the facts that back this up? Just because they say it's true, how can we accept this without any back up facts? They are not being the least bit transparent as to why they are having a budget crisis. NYC tourism is up, more people take the subway than ever. My electric bill hasn't drastically changed in the last 10 years, and I don't suspect theirs has either. Where does our money go? Who is going to audit the MTA?

im going to start driving if single rides increase to $5

how about they raise the single ride to 3 bucks and stop fucking with everyone that lives here.

oops cello ;)

And what happens when ridership drops as people start to leave the city in droves because it's just to damn expensive to live here?

Also, how much more money does the MTA need to get their employees to stop being so rude and obnoxious?

I have no idea what a "chello's" is but other than that I am totally with fugothamist (4).

So the new Coke window ads aren't pulling in enough money for the MTA?

i remember seeing on Gothamist recently information on what percentage of the subway budget comes from its riders versus the percentage in other cities in the US and worldwide. does anyone know where we could find a comprehensive look at such numbers (if one exists)?

i'd pay $5 fare if they lay off 50% of staff, top to bottom, double the number of F trains, keep them reasonably clean, implement the L train style message boards system-wide, and ban strollers, carts & chello's during rush hours.

Bottomless... they're raising prices but cutting service.

It never should have come to this.

what a bunch of crap.

Sooner or later, all of this financial mess that the entire country is in will lead to something akin to the Boston Tea Party as the people get fed up with the government bailing out businesses using taxpayer dollars subsidized by consumer price gouging. When that happens, it's going to get fun/interesting.

I'm fine with that. A hundred dollars is a fare (punny) price to ride one of the most extensive public transportation systems for as much as I want to in 30 days.