Yikes!: Straphangers group says doomsday budget could hike New York-area transit fares 28%

[marmar]

from Newsday:



Straphangers: MTA plan would hike fares 28 percent
BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO | [e-mail]
December 10, 2008


The average Long Island Rail Road fare would jump from $5.71 to $7.31 if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority implemented its "doomsday budget" for 2009, a transit group said yesterday.

The Straphangers Campaign released the findings of an analysis by the New York City Independent Budget Office that calculated how the MTA's proposed 23 percent increase in fare revenue next year probably would translate into dollars and cents for transit riders.

Taking into account a likely loss of ridership throughout the MTA if the hefty fare hike were enacted, the budget office determined that to generate an overall 23 percent increase in fare revenue, the MTA actually would have to raise fares 28 percent.

That would mean the cost of a subway ride going from $2 to "at least" $2.50, a seven-day MetroCard increasing from $25 to $32, and a 30-day card soaring from $81 to $104, the study said.

"Transit fares will go through the roof and service through the floor unless Gov. Paterson and state legislative leaders come to the rescue of transit riders," Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, said in a statement. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/transportation/ny-lifare105959246dec10,0,2428409.story

[BrklynLiberal]

1. They do this all the time. They start out with 28% so when it settles at

say, 10% we will all be grateful that it wasn't 28%. There have been negotiations that could bring it down to 7 or 8%...but of course, everyone has to cover their own "constituential" asses...or at least look like they are.

It is definitely something that will displease some groups of people, no matter how it is finally settled.

East River tolls do not strike me as the calamity that some claim. anything that will reduce car traffic into Manhattan is good news.
If the side benefit is a lower increase in public transit fares, all the better.

Trucks and other business vehicles will no doubt get discounts for the fares anyway.