City straphangers are getting a brief reprieve from a 2013 fare hike, but will soon be paying more at both the turnstile and MetroCard machine.
The MTA approved a preliminary budget including a bump in 2013 fares, followed by further increases in 2015 and 2017. A $1 “green fee” will also be added to newly purchased MetroCards. Tolls and commuter line fares will rise as well.
Fares were originally intended to be boosted beginning in January, but will be held off until March.
The biennial increases will net the agency $450 million next year and an additional $500 million in 2015.
Details on the hikes have not been released and will be made available later this year ahead of November’s public hearings.
“They should not increase the prices,” said Nesto Murdolk, 40, of Bayside. “There’s no way people can afford it.”
New Yorkers are frustrated at being “fed a steady diet of fare increases without corresponding improvements in service,” said Ya-Ting Liu, the transportation advocate for Transportation Alternatives at a June 25 MTA hearing.
Fares have been raised three times since 2007.
Other residents see the need for an increase to cover the MTA’s deep debts.
“I think it is necessary because of the running deficit,” said Bayside resident Fred Z., 71. “We’re going to have to increase taxes or get money from the fares.”
Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said there is a fine line between the agency’s financial woes and providing a service, though he says that the MTA is not to blame.
“We think that the state doesn’t fund transit well enough,” he said. “There should be more support, rather than getting it all from the riding public.”
The MetroCard surcharge will produce about $20 million for the MTA — $18 million from the fee and $2 million in savings through printing fewer cards.
It is not known when a proposed $1 surcharge for new MetroCards will go into effect, though it will likely be enacted along with the March fare hike.
“My feeling is that people should be reusing their cards and part of it is a monetary benefit to the riding public,” Russianoff said.
Many cards are tossed aside with money amounting to less than one fare remaining. The MTA projects that $56.2 million will remain on MetroCards at the close of 2012. The number includes money on cards thrown away, lost or yet to be used.
— Additional reporting by Greg Giaconelli
