I bet you didn’t see this one coming: According to transit experts and sources at the MTA, New Yorkers may be in store for a second fare hike in two years come 2009 if the authority doesn’t come up with some money stat. It would be just the second time in city history that subway fares increased in consecutive years.
Pete Donohue has more on this alarming news:
A rare back-to-back increase – along with service cuts – could be in store for commuters now that MTA number crunchers are suddenly dealing with a massive hole in next year’s budget.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s projected 2009 budget gap has ballooned – doubling or even tripling original estimates, sources said. Without new state money, officials may soon raise the spectre of increases, service cuts – or both, sources and experts said. “They don’t have many options,” one source said…
The latest projections had the MTA struggling to fill a $220 million budget hole. That number has grown to $500 million to $700 million, sources said. Part of the problem is that last year the MTA predicted that revenue from fees on real estate transactions would drop by $160 million between January and May. Instead, they plummeted by $240 million, MTA documents show.
And despite pledges to fight for more MTA funding, the state Legislature later joined Gov. Paterson in slashing expected subsidies from one state account by $40 million earlier this year. The hit repeats next year.
Meanwhile, Donohue notes that Richard Ravitch, tasked with forming a panel to figure out how to close the MTA budget gap, is still reviewing the beleaguered authority’s finances. He has yet to put together the panel.
To those who have been watching the MTA this year as tax revenues have dried up, the arrival of this news comes as no surprise. For the last few years, in fact, city officials have grown increasingly wary of how the MTA has relied on tax revenues to shore up its budget, and a few public advocates had been sounding alarming bells for a while. The state legislature, however, seems loathe to give money to the MTA, and its decision to slash subsidies is both alarming and bewildering.
So what now? Well, this story — anonymous sources, rising numbers — could be a political ploy to get those in charge of the purse strings focusing on the MTA. But the reality is that if outside money doesn’t start flowing to the authority, the fares will have to go up.
Despite Donohue’s man-on-the-street Bryan Tran’s statement — “Any higher and I will have to walk everywhere. It’s ridiculous.” — the fares just aren’t that high. The average cost-per-ride for an unlimited ride user is still well below what the $1.50 base fare we all used to pay in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
If anything, this news just drives home what Sheldon Silver and the anti-congestion pricing contingent did when they opted to let that MTA-saving measure die in committee. Perhaps it’s time to start paying closer attention to Ted Kheel after all.
12 comments
Let’s not forget that the MTA’s costs have skyrocketed too. Especially the cost of Diesel fuel for its enormous bus fleet.
If the MTA was serious about brinkmanship with the State and City, they should threaten to end the 24-hour operation of the subway. I believe New York is the only 24 hour subway system in the world. While I think it should stay that way, I am curious how much money could be saved by shutting it down from 12-5am during the week and 2-6 on weekends.
the MTA has tossed around the idea of closing the system at night in the past, most notably during the City’s fiscal crisis in the mid-70’s. They found that because the system was designed and built to be a 24-hour operation, that there would be no cost savings in a shut-down. For instance, with a system made to have trains running 24/7, where would you put all of those trains during the shut-down periods? And all of the union contracts would have to be renegotiated (not easy at the best of times, and a process that would take years to complete) to shrink the workforce, otherwise all of the workers needed for a 24/7 system would have to be kept on the payroll, and if you’re paying them (the system’s largest expense is personnel) you might as well have them work.
I know the rider contributes more to the budget than almost any other transit system. Despite this, I say, “Raise the fare now.” Don’t wait until there is a crisis. Move it up a dime, a quarter or even fifty cents. Just do it and keep doing it. There is no need to study it. Inflation is a fact of life. The reason there are so many complainers is that MTA hasn’t kept up. How can the MTA sustain, upgrade and expand this massive system with a fare structure that has kept pricing on average 10 years behind?
Raise it.
From http://onlibertynow.blogspot.c.....ondon.html April 2008 (In British £)
London £1.50 using the Oyster card
Paris £1.23 includes zones 1 and 2. Paper ticket
New York £1.04 no zones, price is for a single journey between any two stations on the network. Paper ticket (This is our $2.00 fare which few actually pay!)
Sydney £1.56 zone 1 only on the light rail transit. Paper ticket
Tokyo £1.59 for a single journey between zero up to 40km. Paper ticket
Hong Kong £1.61 for the most expensive ticket. Paper ticket
Moscow £0.89 for two rides. Paper ticket
Beijing £0.23 minimum price that needs to be paid for a single journey. Paper ticket.
Conversely, need to take into account our dollar is depressed.
Was about to say.. £1.50 is very low for London.
That’s a Zone 1 ticket (basically the same as downtown Manhattan.) A zone 1-2 pass is £2 (that’s like downtown and midtown). A paper ticket for ONE ride that doesn’t take into account for zone is £4. Yes. £4. I don’t care how depressed the dollar is, an all-zone SINGLE paper ticket for London costs over $8.
That’s alot of money. Mind you, the average New Yorker pays less than $1.56/ride (based on unlimited rider cards) and even LESS if you use pre-tax dollars to buy it (like alot of companies let you do.)
I love the fact that it’s so cheap, but lets not kid ourselves. At current prices the NYC Subway is a bargain.
They should double the fare. Our subways are disgusting – it’s the worst run system in the world and it’s because it’s terribly underfunded. I feel like I’m going into a 3rd world country when I go down there. The service is terrible (train service and train employees – could they find employees who are dumber and lazier?) – the stations are outdated and full of lead paint – we need more lines (2 and 7 trains) – we need “next train” time indicators – we need cosmetic work done on station after station – we need to get rid of the rats (seriously it’s so disgusting and unacceptable that in 2008 our subway stations are rat infested) – the stations are so dirty and should be cleaned several times per day – they all need to be powerwashed.
$150/month is nothing for unlimited transportation. Charge us more and give us better service.
Before the raise the fare, they should ask for donations. The MTA needs all the help they can get, and the Green Movement is very in right now. It’d be a big PR stunt if celebrities and billionaires helped public transit.
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According to the NY Times in 2005, salaries at the MTA aren’t the problem:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12.....;oref=slog
Average MTA Salaries
Bus or Subway Operator US$63,000
Subway Conductor US$54,000
Station Agent US$51,000
Cleaner US$40,000
Average MTA Worker US$52,000
The benefits are quite generous. And I’m guessing the executive salaries are ludicrous.
Perhaps privatize the subways, at least partially? They were private, initially, as I understand it. Can you imagine the lazy MTA workers fleeing like rats under a subway track?
For the record, I am far from anti-union — just tired of having disgusting, embarrassingly inefficient subways.
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