# NYC MTA Approves Fare Hike



## AlanB (Mar 8, 2003)

> An increase in NYCT subway and regular bus fares, Staten Island Railway and LI Bus regular fares, from $1.50 to $2.00 and NYCT Express Bus fares from $3 to $4.
> An increase in the 7-day MetroCard pass from $17 to $21, the one-day pass from $4 to $7, and the 30-day pass from $63 to $70.


The MTA Board approved the above increase last Thursday the 6th of March. The plan does increase certain discounts, so if one buys a multi-ride card the actual increase is less than the 50 cent increase for just a single ride.

Also of note is the demise of the time honored token.



> The phasing out of the token and the undertaking of a customer survey to ascertain the market for a new bi-weekly pass and to determine its feasibility and appropriate price.


You can view the entire plan, with all the details at the MTA's website located here.


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## Superliner Diner (Mar 8, 2003)

First of all, quite a surprise the token lasted as long as it did. It should have been eliminated back in 1997 when the Metrocard Gold debuted. They can save a lot of money by not having to maintain all those token slots in the faregates. And they won't have to worry about changing the size of the token anymore whenever there is a fare increase.

Chicago's CTA has a Transit Card just like New York's Metrocard. The former did away with their tokens a few years ago.

This might actually make sales of Metrocards faster, since the base fare will rise to $2.00 -- no coins required. With the express bus fare going to $4.00, somebody using both the express buses and the subways can keep an even dollar amount on his Metrocard.

I'm shocked at the increase in the FunPass from $4 to $7. While the regular base fare went up 33-1/3%, the FunPass rose 75%, well more than double the increase of the fare. It means that while under the older fares, the FunPass paid for itself during the third ride, now one will have to take four rides for it to be worthwhile (since three rides can be had for $6.00). This definitely will discourage the purchase of the FunPass, and I can easily see it eventually being eliminated if sales dry up.


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## AlanB (Mar 8, 2003)

Superliner Diner said:


> I'm shocked at the increase in the FunPass from $4 to $7. While the regular base fare went up 33-1/3%, the FunPass rose 75%, well more than double the increase of the fare. It means that while under the older fares, the FunPass paid for itself during the third ride, now one will have to take four rides for it to be worthwhile (since three rides can be had for $6.00). This definitely will discourage the purchase of the FunPass, and I can easily see it eventually being eliminated if sales dry up.


My guess is that the fun pass has been so succesful, that they are hoping to capitalize on that sucess and make a little extra. If sales drop dramatically for the fun pass, look for the price to come down some.


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## Superliner Diner (Mar 9, 2003)

And one has to wonder what happened to the surplus under the Giuliani administration.

When he was mayor, in July of 1997 he was responsible for the One City-One Fare promotion (along with the debut of Metrocard Gold) whereby you could transfer between subway and bus for free (particularly in traditional second fare zones in subwayless eastern Queens) where before it cost a separate zone fare. At that same time it became possible to "transfer" between the Staten Island Railway and the subways in the South Ferry area of Manhattan, by using the ferry in between, which also became free at that time.

And then there was another sign that they had more money than they knew what to do with. They began to offer 11 rides for the price of 10 (and I believe they wanted to raise that to 12 rides for the price of 10 at some point). My guess is that luxury will go too soon, if it's not gone already.


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## AlanB (Mar 9, 2003)

Superliner Diner said:


> They began to offer 11 rides for the price of 10 (and I believe they wanted to raise that to 12 rides for the price of 10 at some point). My guess is that luxury will go too soon, if it's not gone already.


Well it can't be gone already, as that's part of the new plan that was just passed.



> Lowering the threshold for receiving MetroCard “bonuses” from $15 to $10, with an increase in the bonus from 10% to 20%. Under this proposal, a person purchasing a $10 card will now get a free ride. (i.e. 6 rides for the price of 5, rather than the current 11 for 10.)


One will now gets 12 rides for the price of 10, even better instead of needing to buy 10 rides for the discount, one only needs to buy 5 rides at which point you get an extra ride.


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