Transit leaders in New York City on Tuesday approved a 10-cent increase to subway and bus fares, allowing them to rise to $3 starting next year.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the city’s subway and buses, also finalized a plan, set to take effect on Jan. 4, that will make modest changes to commuter rail fares, tolls and other public transit in the New York region.
The outcome of the vote, held Tuesday morning at M.T.A. offices in Downtown Brooklyn, was widely expected after the board revealed a version of the plan months ago. Eleven board members voted in favor and two abstained; none voted against it.
The cost of weekly and monthly tickets on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, which are priced based on the distance traveled, will increase by up to 4.5 percent; one-way fares will climb by up to 8 percent. Access-A-Ride, the paratransit service that costs the same as the subway, will also cost $3 starting next year.
Tolls on several bridges and tunnels will increase by about 7.5 percent. A trip for most vehicles through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, for example, would climb to $7.46 from $6.94.
The changes were expected to raise $350 million a year in additional revenue for the transit authority. The agency relies on a roughly $20 billion annual operating budget that it uses to cover worker salaries and benefits, utility costs and borrowing expenses. More than a quarter of the budget comes from fares.
The M.T.A. has defended the price bump, its first since the summer of 2023, as a reasonable adjustment — a less than 4 percent increase for the buses and subway — at a time when inflation has surged.
Janno Lieber, the authority’s chief executive, said the fare increase was far smaller than those that had gone into effect recently at other transit systems facing more serious shortfalls, and praised Gov. Kathy Hochul for securing funding to help shore up the agency’s revenue.
But at the board meeting on Tuesday, where more than 40 people waited to comment — many on the fare increases — critics called the changes burdensome.
Christian Joseph, a member of the Fare Ain’t Fair Coalition, an advocacy group that opposes fare increases, said higher costs could drive more people to jump the turnstile.
“The basis of fare evasion is poverty and the lack of affordability,” he said.
Lower-income New Yorkers can qualify for a city program called Fair Fares, which charges riders half price for the subway, buses and paratransit. Transit advocates have pushed to raise the income limit to make the program accessible to more people.
The M.T.A. also made some concessions before its board members approved the plan.
A seven-day fare cap, which lets subway and bus passengers ride for free for the remainder of the period after 12 paid rides, was made permanent and will cost $35 instead of $36. One-way tickets on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North will not expire four hours after purchase — a previously planned change that had angered riders who like to buy tickets in advance. Now, tickets will remain valid until 4 a.m. the next day. Fares will not increase on Metro-North’s West-of-Hudson service, which is operated by NJ Transit. And accompanied minors up to 17 years old can now ride the two commuter railroads for $1. (The previous age limit was 11.)
The fare and toll increases have garnered support from a number of transit advocacy groups that have raised concerns about the risks of a possible recession and waning federal support.
The Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog group, endorsed the fare increase as a way to protect the authority’s budget at a time when some funding sources remain uncertain.
An influx of federal money tied to the Covid-19 pandemic during the Biden administration has been almost exhausted, and the M.T.A. is counting on about $500 million from each of three forthcoming New York casino licenses, said Andrew Rein, the president of the budget commission.
The fare increase will arrive while the authority’s fiscal choices are under close scrutiny.
Last year, the authority lost roughly $1 billion in revenue to fare and toll evasion, most of it on the buses and subway, according to the Citizens Budget Commission.
The M.T.A. has invested in deterrence measures in the subway, including taller barriers at fare gates, mechanisms that make slipping through turnstiles harder, unarmed gate guards and a modification to emergency doors that delays egress. Teams of inspectors that enforce fare payment have also been deployed on many buses.
The strategies appear to be having an effect, Mr. Rein said, noting that revenue loss from fare evasion is expected to decline in 2025 for the first time in five years, even as ridership grows. But still, in the first quarter of this year, about 10 percent of subway riders and 44 percent of bus passengers skipped the fare.
The authority had originally planned to raise fares earlier this year, but transit officials decided to first complete the replacement of the MetroCard, which has been in use for more than 30 years, with the tap-and-go OMNY system that was introduced in 2019. (Sales of the MetroCard will end this year, but they will continue to be accepted.)
But the OMNY system, which allows users to pay with a wave of their phone or a contactless card, has raised the ire of some users, who have criticized the rollout for technical issues, including payment problems at fare gates, delayed charges and a lack of transparency.
Jessie Lazarus, a deputy chief at the M.T.A., said the agency had heard the feedback and was rolling out changes, including adding new transaction details for riders on the OMNY website.
Roughly 80 percent of riders are already using OMNY, Mr. Lieber said, and the authority recently finished installing vending machines for refillable OMNY cards at all 472 subway stations.
Stefanos Chen is a Times reporter covering New York City’s transit system.
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