New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority raised fares today. The subway and bus base fare went from $2.90 to $3.00, commuter rail tickets increased by up to 8%, and bridge and tunnel tolls climbed 7.5%. Headlines are calling it a fare hike, and technically they’re right. But whether this actually affects your life depends entirely on how you interact with the system.
I live in Connecticut but have probably been to New York City more times this year than any other. Sometimes it’s for a technology event put on by Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, or C-Vision International. For an out-of-towner like me, a visit to New York City has a purpose behind it and almost always involves a round-trip ticket on the Metro-North New Haven Line plus a couple of subway rides.
This morning was my first trip under the new fares, so let me use it as an example. I wanted to attend church at Manhattan Church of Christ on the Upper East Side. Before leaving my apartment in Milford, I logged into the Train Time app as I typically do. What was previously called an off-peak round-trip ticket from Milford to Grand Central is now called a Day Pass Weekend, but it costs the same $34.50. I walked over and hopped on the 6:53 AM train and rode for the next hour and a half. Once I arrived at Grand Central, I grabbed a 6 uptown local to 77th and Lexington. That subway ride cost $3.00 where it was previously $2.90. Later I spent another $3.00 to return to Grand Central before using my Day Pass to get back to Connecticut.
A trip that would have previously cost me $40.30 now costs $40.50—an increase of less than half a percent. Those two dimes aren’t going to affect whether I make another trip to New York in the future.
For Daily Commuters, It Adds Up
The math changes for people who depend on the MTA every day.
Consider Maria, a home health aide who lives in the Bronx and visits clients across the city. She takes the subway four times a day, five days a week—that’s 20 rides. Under the old fare, she’d have purchased a 7-day unlimited MetroCard for $34. Under the new system, MetroCards are gone entirely. Maria now taps her debit card at the turnstile and pays $3.00 per ride until she hits 12 rides within a rolling seven-day window, at which point the system caps her at $35 for the week. That’s a dollar more per week—a 3% increase—or about $52 per year. Not catastrophic, but noticeable on a home health aide’s salary.
Then there’s James, who commutes from Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to his office in Midtown Manhattan. He takes the subway twice a day, five days a week—10 rides. Under the old system, he’d pay $29 per week. Now he taps his iPhone at the turnstile and pays $3 per ride, totaling $30 for the week—a 3.4% increase. Over a year, that’s $52 in additional fares. Again, not life-altering, but it’s another $52 that could have gone toward groceries or his kid’s school supplies.
Meanwhile, a Westchester resident who drives into Manhattan via the Henry Hudson Bridge faces a 7.5% toll increase—the E-ZPass rate climbed from $3.18 to $3.42. Cross it daily for work and that’s about $60 more per year.
The riders who may actually come out ahead are the heavy users. Someone taking 15 or 20 rides a week used to pay $34 for an unlimited card. Now they pay for 12 rides at $3 each ($36), but the OMNY system caps them at $35. For these riders, the new fare structure is roughly equivalent—maybe even slightly better if they were previously buying unlimited cards and not quite maxing them out.
The Broader Picture
MTA Chairperson Janno Lieber acknowledged that any fare increase is “always painful,” while noting that a 2% annual increase compares favorably to double-digit hikes seen in transit systems elsewhere in the country. “Transit is one of the things that makes New York affordable,” he said.
He’s not wrong. A monthly LIRR pass now runs anywhere from $7 to $21 more than before, but it’s still cheaper than parking a car in Manhattan for a single day. And while $52 per year in additional subway fares is real money, it’s a rounding error compared to the cost of owning and operating a vehicle in the city.
For occasional visitors like me, the fare increase is barely perceptible. For daily riders, it’s a small but steady addition to the cost of living in a city that already demands a lot from its residents. Same fare hike, different realities.