MTA Proposes Hiking MetroCard Fares To $2.90 In Attempt To Boost Revenue

It turns out the creative solution to help fix MTA quality, that no one has thought of yet is…wait for it…raising fares.

At least that is the latest proposed solution coming out of the brain trust known as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, an organization that appears to us to be in a perpetual state of disrepair despite a neverending litany of rising toll prices and transit fares. 

The new changes will see prices for a MetroCard swipe rise to $2.90 and the hike applies to subway, bus and paratransit rides, according to Yahoo News. The report pointed out the obvious, noting that the purpose of the higher pries is to “boost revenue for the agency”. Ah, so that’s where the money comes from…

The goal of the MTA is to bolster its top line by 4%, the report says.

The price of 7 day MetroCards will rise by $1 to $34 and monthly passes will increase $5 to $132. The price of express bus tickets will go up to $7 and seven day express passes will rise in price from $62 to $64. 

New Yorkers, who have dealt with sporadic service since the pandemic, aggressive taxation and spiking inflation, aren’t thrilled about the change.

Home attendant Luz Ramirez told Yahoo: “How are working people going to do this? We already give up so much just to live. And then the subway costs more and more and more.”

62 year old Samuel Andrews commented: “We work hard, pay our taxes, and they still have their knee on our neck.”

One 23 year old from the Bronx said the hike wouldn’t matter much…because he copped to hopping the turnstile whenever possible. “To be honest, I don’t even pay the fee. It needs to be cheaper. I don’t like the amount it is right now. I pay it every now and then. But usually not. I might start paying it once I can’t hop over it, you know? [When] I get too old,” he said. 

“You’ve got mentally ill all folks all up and down the platforms. How can they still raise the fare?” said 35 year old Starr Riley. 

MTA Finance Committee chair Neal Zuckerman responded: “We haven’t had increases in a long time. This is a reasonable increase given inflation. It is in keeping with what we did for at least a decade, having predictable 4% every two year increases. Let us not forget, ladies and gentlemen, our ridership is 30 percentage points lower than pre-pandemic.”

Well, Neal, who do you have to blame for that?