MTA Approves $2.50 MetroCard and Broad Fare Hikes Starting in March

Just minutes before MTA Chairman Joe Lhota will reportedly step down to run for mayor, he presided over a board meeting in which the proposal for broad fare hikes was unanimously approved to “raise an additional $450 million in annualized revenue.”

Here’s the numbers from the proposal from the MTA:

• Base MetroCard Fare – $2.25 to $2.50
• Local Bus Cash Fare – $2.25 to $2.50
• Single Ride Ticket – $2.50 to $2.75
• Express Bus Fare – $5.50 to $6.00
• Bonus Value – from 7% with $10 purchase to 5% with $5 purchase
• Base Fare with Bonus – $2.10 to $2.38
• 30 Day Pass – $104 to $112 (break even point on trips goes from 50 to 48)
• 7 Day Pass – $29 to $30 (break even point on trips goes from 14 to 13)
• 7 Day Express Bus Pass – $50 to $55
• New MetroCard Fee – Free to $1
• Access-a-Ride Fare – $2.25 to $2.50
• E-ZPass toll on Verrazano-Narrows Bridge – $9.66 to $10.66 for non-Staten Islanders, who will pay $6.36.
• SI residents will pay $6 tolls on the Verrazano if they make at least three crossings per month.
• Bridge tolls around the city will rise, prices depending on the bridge and method of payment.

The New York Observer reports:

As board member Ira Greenberg pointed out, this fare hike of 7.5 percent may seem small, but in aggregate, the monthly MetroCard has gone up 32 percent since this series of fare hikes began in 2008, and the cost of a monthly railroad fare has gone up an equally drastic 21 percent. And it may not sound like much, but a $2.50 MetroCard is 25 percent more expensive over that period, when it cost $2.

Will the hikes change anything for you?

Update: NY1 is reporting that Lhota has announced his resignation and is exploring a mayoral run.