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......

Protests are expected over anticipated fare hikes for subway and bus rides, and the MTA is prepared to listen. The other day, MTA head Dale Hemmerdinger said "We're not deaf," in response to rider complaints about the boost in prices. Riders will get a chance to test that assertion tonight in Brooklyn, as hearings are held about a jump in fare hikes to $2.25 and a boost in weekly and monthly unlimited passes of......

We've all heard how 3,000 surveillance cameras, not to mention at least a hundred license plate readers, will be installed in downtown Manhattan, as part of the city's ring-of-steel like security initiative to prevent terrorist attacks. But the NYPD also announced that radiation detectors will be put into place as far as 50 miles from the city to help identify dirty bombs. In fact, the ring of steel seems to be getting another "ring of......

Finally, proof that public transport is crowded for a reason: The MTA says that ridership has grown 36% in the past ten years. From amNew York: Trips on New York City Transit subway trains and buses have grown 36 percent, from 1.6 billion in 1995 to 2.2 billion in 2005. Meanwhile, the population of the city grew 7 percent from 7.6 million to 8.2 million. Likewise, regular commuter rail trips jumped 14 percent to......

Starting next week one of the biggest shifts in commuter rail in the past two decades will begin. In response to rider demand Metro-North, New Jersey Transit and the LIRR are all in the process of seriously upping their pre-dawn service. Apparently as the world moves towards a global market 6-to-5 and 9-to-9 shifts are the new black for the white-collar set, and the trains are bending to keep their riders in style to......

If there is one thing Gothamist loves it would have to be, well, Gotham. But if there are two things that Gothamist loves, well, it would have to be Gotham and ... Bridges. Yeah. Bridges. We really do love us some bridges. So much that we try to walk over at least one a week (seriously, great way to blow off steam). We're the kind of people that do Bike New York just for the......