MTA Board Approves Citywide Toll & Fare Hikes

Commuting anywhere in this city is about to get a little pricier.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) board has decided to raise single-fare rides from $2.50 to $2.75 on March 22. As planned, unlimited monthly MetroCards will increase from $112 to $116.50, and weekly MetroCards will go up a dollar, from $30 to $31.

The MTA board held public hearings last month deliberating on whether to increase the single fare by a quarter, or to leave it the same, but removing the bonus amount added to those MetroCard purchases. The 25 cent increase on single rides will boost the bonus for loading MTA cards (with a minimum $5.50 purchase) from 5 percent to 11 percent.

The MTA board has also approved a citywide toll hike — by approximately 4 percent — on nine MTA bridges and tunnels, including the dreaded Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which will go from $15 to $16 on the cash toll, and from $10.66 to $11.08 for E-ZPass rate.

Southern Brooklyn representatives State Senator Marty Golden and Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, along with MTA board member Allen Cappelli of Staten Island have launched an online petition demanding the MTA offer a better solution.

In 2012, the Port Authority created a bridge discount program, providing Brooklyn residents traveling over the Goethals Bridge, Outerbridge Crossing, and the Bayonne Bridge three times or more per month with a 58 percent discount. Golden and  Malliotakis are asking the MTA to implement the same plan for the Verrazano toll.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams also criticized the fare hike, stating that it hurts “hard-working Brooklynites, whose wallets are already stretched to their limits.

“I understand the capital needs in the system, including dozens of unmet challenges and opportunities in Brooklyn, but it is my belief that the state’s surplus should be used to offset their deficit and related infrastructure needs,” Adams said, then calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to “identify a sustainable funding stream for the MTA in his budget.”

However, MTA board member/DOT commissioner Polly Trottenberg told the New York Post that “Obviously nobody wants to vote for a toll increase, [but] it causes the least damage to the largest amount of folks. It’s as fair as it can be under the circumstances.”