The board voted to keep the base fare at $2.75 while eliminating the bonus that riders receive when buying a pay-per-ride MetroCard. Commuters who rely on the authority’s sprawling network of trains, buses, bridges and tunnels will also see fares and toll increases of about 4 percent.
On April 21, a weekly MetroCard will rise to $33, up from $32. A monthly pass will increase to $127, up from $121.
The fare increase vote comes as state lawmakers decide whether to approve new revenue streams for the system. Transit leaders say they need billions to tackle huge budget deficits and to pay for critical repairs.
The board has approved modest fare increases every two years, but this is the first one since the subway descended into crisis in 2017. Without additional funding, transit leaders say they could be forced to make service cuts.
The city’s transportation commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, said it was a difficult decision to raise fares, but that fares needed to keep up with inflation.
“I don’t think anyone relishes this vote today, but I think it’s important to keep this agency running,” said Trottenberg, who also serves on the board.
In addition to a fare increase on the commuter railroads, the tolls on MTA bridges and tunnels will increase March 31. For E-ZPass users, the toll on most crossings will rise by 36 cents. At the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, where tolls are collected only when entering Staten Island, the E-ZPass toll will rise to $12.24, up from $11.52, and the toll via mail will increase to $19, up from $17.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pressing for congestion pricing, a proposal to toll cars entering the busiest parts of Manhattan to raise money for the transit system. Cuomo, a Democrat who controls the authority, has warned that without congestion pricing, the authority might have to raise fares by 30 percent.
The authority’s president, Patrick Foye, said he was working with Cuomo to secure additional money for the transit system.
“This is a full-court press for congestion pricing,” Foye said at a news conference Sunday to trumpet recent improvements on the subway.
The push for congestion pricing got a significant boost Tuesday when Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had been lukewarm on the idea, announced his support for the proposal. In a joint plan, Cuomo and de Blasio also called for two new revenue sources for the transit system: a cannabis tax and an internet sales tax.
The fare and toll increases are expected to raise about $336 million each year, but only about half of the authority’s $16 billion operating budget comes from fares and tolls. The rest comes from dedicated taxes and state and local subsidies and other revenue.
The board was expected to approve higher fares last month, but it delayed the vote after Cuomo strongly opposed the increases. Lawrence S. Schwartz, a board member and ally of Cuomo, raised the prospect of a separate proposal that would tie fare increases to service improvements.
New Yorkers who rely on Access-A-Ride, the agency’s troubled paratransit service, wanted to keep the base fare at $2.75 since that is what they pay for their trips. A separate proposal would have increased the base fare for a single-ride MetroCard to $3 while doubling the pay-per-ride bonus to 10 percent.
The subway’s leader, Andy Byford, has made the case that the system has improved markedly over the last year. The on-time rate, which once hovered around 65 percent, rose to 77 percent last month.
The transit agency also recently unveiled the name of the new fare payment system it will introduce in May. The system will be called OMNY, which stands for “One Metro New York.”
Subway and bus riders will eventually be able to tap a bank card or a smartphone on an electronic reader to enter the system, and the MetroCard will be retired. In May, the technology will appear on the subway for the first time on the 4, 5 and 6 lines, from Grand Central Station in Manhattan to Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
If congestion pricing fails in Albany this year, the authority could face difficult choices, from a major fare increase to laying off workers. Even if congestion pricing is approved, it will not provide all the funding the authority says it needs to improve its network of subways, buses and commuter railroads.
Cuomo says congestion pricing could raise $15 billion. But the authority’s next five-year capital plan could cost as much as $60 billion.
Still, while the system clearly needs repairs, critics say the agency has misspent money and failed to rein in soaring costs on projects like East Side Access, a new train station for the Long Island Rail Road under Grand Central Terminal. The cost has ballooned to more than $11 billion.
The authority has a long list of priorities, from improving the bus network to installing more elevators on the subway. At a board meeting Monday, accessibility advocates raised alarm over reports that the agency might scale back its plans to install elevators at 50 stations in the next five years.
Byford, president of New York City Transit, the agency that oversees the subway and buses, pledged to make elevators a top priority.
“This president isn’t wavering,” Byford said. “My commitment to those 50 stations is rock solid.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.