To combat the financial troubles plaguing New York City's public transportation system for the past year, the MTA is considering a MetroCard price hike.
Though the exact details of the fee hikes have yet to be determined, the MTA is planning to increase prices staring in 2011. Further price hikes are due in 2013.
According to MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz, the MTA wants to increase revenue from tolls and fares by 7.5 percent to help combat its more than $900 million budget deficit for the 2011 fiscal year. Ortiz and another MTA spokesman, Aaron Donovan, said the agency is looking at two different fee-increase proposals.
One proposal, announced at an MTA board meeting in July, would price monthly unlimited MetroCards at $104, $15 more than the current $89 price. A second proposal would offer a $99 "capped" monthly pass that would limit riders to a maximum of 90 rides per month. In order to achieve the desired financial results, the MTA cannot offer both a capped and an unlimited option under the aforementioned pricing structures. If the agency were to offer both, it said it would have to charge $130 for the unlimited fare.
No changes are planned for the pay-per-ride base fares, but board members have proposed a reduction in the bonus amount from 15 percent on every $8 to 7 percent on every $10.
An increase in the price of the seven-day pass has also been proposed.
News of a price increase, however, has not deterred some daily commuters; they claim they will still use the subway out of necessity.
"Whatever they change the price to, I'm going to be forced to pay it because I live in Queens," said Cameron Perry, a barista at Argo Tea on 75 University Place. Perry, who uses the unlimited monthly pass, said he does not use the subway more than 90 times per month, the limit for the proposed "capped" monthly pass.
Weinstein Dining Hall Senior Food Service Director Ricky Moore said he uses the subway to travel between work and home daily and will continue to ride it.
"With the lack of parking in the city, it's still one of the more economical ways to get around," Moore said.
But Steinhardt junior Rob Santos, a math education major, said a fare increase would be hard to swallow.
"That's half my paycheck," he said. "That would be really inconvenient. For that, I'll just walk — it'll take me 45 minutes."
The responses are in line with predictions of professor of urban policy and planning Mitchell Moss of the Wagner Institute of Public Policy: that the price increases will be unpleasant, but not put a major dent in ridership.
"If you go to London, they raise fares every year," he said. "The subway is one of the great bargains in New York. Most people that have the MetroCard do not understand the enormous benefits they get from the discounting of the fare."
Moss attributed the deficit to the high cost of maintaining New York City's subway system, which he said serves seven million riders a day and is one of the few in the United States to operate 24 hours a day.
"There are increasing costs of operating the system," Moss said. "Raising the fare is the only way to ensure the rider will have a reliable and safe system and the MTA at this point in time can't raise taxes. So the fare will be raised in a way that is actually quite equitable."
The MTA is roughly $26 billion in debt, Donovan said.
