Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll look at the fare hike on the subway and buses and at the ways in which it could be a transformative year for the city’s transit system.
New York City’s transit system is leaning hard into the concept of “new year, new me.”
The subway and buses cost more now: $3 per ride.
The MetroCard is (mostly) dead, replaced by the tap-and-go OMNY system.
There are new strategies to deter fare evaders, who, as one might expect, have come up with new ways to avoid paying.
The new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, chose to be sworn in at an old subway station, using that backdrop to announce his pick to head the city’s Department of Transportation. That man, Michael Flynn, is sure to be busy: One of Mamdani’s key campaign promises was to make city buses fast and free.
The transit system, run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is often in the spotlight, with millions of riders every day. And the critical eye of the Trump administration always seems to be watching. But this could be a defining and transformative year for the system.
Here’s what to know:
Rides will be more expensive for most people.
The board of the M.T.A., a state agency, approved a 10-cent increase to fares in September, raising the cost of a single ride to $3 from $2.90, as my colleague Stefanos Chen reported. The fare hike, along with others on tunnels, bridges and commuter trains, was expected to raise $350 million a year in additional revenue for the transit authority.
But unaccompanied minors 17 and under will get a break: They can now ride the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad for $1. The previous age limit was 11.
The days of embarrassing swipe fails are over.
“The MetroCard was slippery, hard to share, full of secrets,” my colleague Dodai Stewart wrote recently. “Unknowable. Inscrutable. A yellow and blue riddle. Simply gazing upon one revealed nothing. Did it hold one ride, or unlimited rides? Did the magnetic strip even work?”
The M.T.A. stopped selling the cards on Dec. 31 (we got a final look at how they are made), and a few dozen people braved the cold to hold a funeral for the MetroCard. The authority has been phasing in the OMNY payment system for a few years, but about 6 percent of riders were committed to swiping until the end. The cards will still work for about six more months.
Now you can tap to pay, with an OMNY card, a credit or debit card, or a digital payment device like your cellphone or smartwatch. There have been some hiccups, and you can’t buy an unlimited monthly pass anymore. But most people are finding the new system fairly easy to use. Stefanos explains it here.
Mamdani wants to make New York transit ‘the envy of the world.’
The new mayor was sworn in just after midnight on Jan. 1 at the old City Hall subway station. The station, with tiled arches, chandeliers and vaulted ceilings, opened in 1904 as a showcase destination among New York’s 28 original subway stations, Dana Rubinstein reported. It closed in 1945, though the New York Transit Museum still conducts tours there.
Mamdani said the station was “a testament to the importance of public transit, to the vitality, the health and the legacy of our city.” His pick for transportation commissioner, Flynn, worked at the Transportation Department for nearly a decade before joining an urban transportation consulting firm.
Flynn doesn’t control the price of buses — that’s up to the state — but he could help with Mamdani’s promise to make them faster by changing roads and building more protected bus and bike lanes, Stefanos and Dana reported. New York’s buses travel at roughly eight miles per hour, on average, and are among the slowest of any major American city. They serve largely lower- and middle-income residents, especially in the boroughs beyond Manhattan.
Safety is still a concern.
Last year began under the shadow of a horrific subway crime: the killing of a homeless woman who was set on fire.
But 2025 ended up being one of the safest years on the subway so far this century, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in mid-December. Major subway crime — including rape, murder and robbery — was at its lowest level since 2009, according to the governor’s office. Felony assaults, which have soared since the pandemic, were expected to be slightly lower in 2025 than in 2024.
Still, Hochul said she would pour an additional $77 million into the system for more police officers on subway platforms and trains.
Weather
Expect a mostly cloudy day with a chance of snow in the afternoon. Temperatures will near 36. Tonight, cloudy conditions will continue with a low around 35.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Tuesday (Three Kings Day).
The latest New York news
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Nicolás Maduro is being held in Brooklyn jail: The Venezuelan president is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, one of the country’s most notorious federal lockups, after the U.S. military captured and transported him to New York City. Maduro faces federal charges of narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking.
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Mamdani objected to U.S. actions in Venezuela: After Maduro was captured by the U.S. military and taken to New York, Mamdani found himself confronting an international spectacle that could become the first major test of his relationship as mayor with President Trump.
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Maduro sought to connect with Harlem: In past visits to New York, Maduro made Harlem — and its renowned Black churches — a key stop. Maduro tried to tie the Latin American fight against imperialism with the struggle of Black Americans against racism.
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Mamdani revoked executive orders that backed Israel: Mayor Mamdani revoked every order that former Mayor Eric Adams issued after his indictment on federal corruption charges. Two Israel-related orders were among those erased from the books.
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A new housing commissioner: Mayor Mamdani named Dina Levy, a former state official and longtime advocate for affordable housing and tenants’ rights, to lead the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Mamdani also announced that the city would hold public hearings where frustrated renters could voice their complaints.
METROPOLITAN diary
Edible arrangement
Dear Diary:
I walked up Broadway toward my neighborhood fruit stand at the corner of 73rd Street, hopeful that the gruff stand-minder was on duty.
He was, and I swept strawberries and blueberries into my arms as he watched. Other patrons milled around, among them a woman examining avocados and a lanky man considering the lemons.
“Nice raspberries, nice raspberries,” the vendor said, moving toward me. “Some sweet potatoes? Very fresh, very fresh.”
I retrieved my wallet to pay and leave. The vendor slipped his usual extra, and free, bananas into my bag alongside the fruit I had purchased.
The bananas were an equalizer of sorts. To him, they signaled appreciation that I listened to his advice without objecting. To me, they were a generous offering from a hard worker.
As I took them, I thought about our ongoing exchange and its evolution toward a relationship.
Then I heard a man’s voice from behind: “Miss, Miss.”
In New York, I had learned that turning to acknowledge a voice from behind could mean facing something untoward, or it could indicate someone saying I had dropped my wallet.
“Take this,” I heard the voice say. Turning, I saw it belonged to the lanky man who had been eyeing the lemons.
“Here, take this, please,” he said, his extended hand holding a lemon. “I bought three, but I only need two.”
“No, thank you,” I said.
“No, really,” he said. “I don’t need it.”
He thrust the lemon toward me as if it were a bouquet.
“OK,” I said, accepting the piece of fruit. Then I reached into my bag, snapped a banana off the bunch and quickly handed it to this stranger.
“No, no,” he said, “that’s not part of the arrangement.”
“Oh, yes, it is,” I said with a smile.
— Janet L. Schinderman
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. James Barron is back tomorrow. — S.L.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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The post As the Fare Rises, the Subway Is in the Spotlight appeared first on New York Times.
