When People Can’t Afford Transit, New York City Pays for It — One Way or Another
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MTA Board Member David Jones talks transit affordability: "The only group that really isn’t getting any help seems to be the working poor."
Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Fare Hikes
Growing Coalition Urges de Blasio to Fund Discount Fares for Poor Residents
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Advocates are turning up the heat on Mayor de Blasio to fund discount MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers. The Riders Alliance and the Community Service Society led a rally on the steps of City Hall this morning calling on Mayor de Blasio to fund discount fares in his FY 2018 budget, which will be drafted early next year. A majority of […]
Cardboard Cuomo Sends His Regrets to Transit Riders for Shortchanging MTA
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In October, Governor Cuomo pledged to allocate $8.3 billion in state support for the MTA capital program, which maintains and upgrades the region’s transit system. But when Cuomo released his executive budget a few months later, it contained no new money for the capital program. Instead, the state now says it will only deliver its funding until the MTA […]
How Much Will Fares Rise Without Closing the MTA Capital Plan Gap? Try 25%
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When the MTA’s chief financial officer warned last month that the likely price for failing to fund the authority’s capital plan was a 15 percent fare hike, the response was swift. Just 24 hours later, according to Newsday, MTA chief Tom Prendergast “backed away” from that scenario, calling it “unconscionable.” Evidently the one thing worse […]
Fed Up With the Latest Fare Hike? Be Sure to Say #ThanksCuomo
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It’s easy to get annoyed with the MTA: Your train is slow and crowded, the station is dirty, the bus is late — and to top it off, you just got hit with another fare hike. You’re paying more for deteriorating service, and the only place to direct your anger is a faceless bureaucracy known as the […]
MTA-TWU Agreement: What’s the Plan Now, Governor?
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The MTA’s financial situation became much murkier yesterday as Governor Cuomo announced that retroactive raises will be part of a labor agreement between the transit authority and the Transport Workers Union. Up until yesterday’s announcement, MTA leadership had insisted that the authority’s financial health depended on “three years of net-zero wage growth.” Keeping labor costs flat […]