Home Fare Hikes New fares now in effect

New fares now in effect

by Benjamin Kabak

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Just a quick Sunday reminder that the new fares have gone into effect. A subway ride now costs $2.25, and the Unlimited Ride options all saw increases of a few dollars this morning. You can click on the image above for a bigger version of the MTA’s fare hike poster.

Meanwhile, Transit provided me with some interesting information about the current state of the fares. When the pay-per-ride discounts, Unlimited Ride usage and free transfers are aggregated, the average fare had been around $1.41. It will go up to approximately $1.56. That’s $1.13 in 1996 dollars, and in 1996, the actual fares were $1.50. Somehow, straphangers are paying less now than they did 13 years ago. That’s small comfort though as this is the second fare hike in two years.

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9 comments

Ryan June 28, 2009 - 2:43 pm

I have two $81 TransitChek cards in my sock drawer cause I’ve been out of town on business and haven’t been able to use them… not sure what the heck to do about them. Won’t be back working in the city for another two weeks!

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Benjamin Kabak June 28, 2009 - 6:48 pm

I’ll post more about this later in the week, but if you mail them back to the MTA, you’ll get a refund. As shocking as it sounds, that actually works.

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Robert June 28, 2009 - 4:19 pm

I think they should just get rid of the bonuses. I know many people like it because it supposedly rewards more frequent riders of the subway, but that’s what the unlimited cards are for. Getting rid of the bonuses would just make things a lot simpler and more transparent. They make people think the fare is higher than it actually is — most people don’t realize how much they’re saving with the bonus, and they complain when the fare goes up 25 cents, but wouldn’t complain as much if the base fare stayed $2 but the bonus was eliminated. I don’t know how much that would raise income for the MTA overall, but an extra 25 cents is less than 15% of the $2 fare. Of course, the 15% was only on purchases $7 and up, so the MTA isn’t losing 15% of all of their pay-per-ride revenue, but it still would probably be a significant amount.

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crescent June 28, 2009 - 9:30 pm

Ryan, I’d offer it for $50 on craigslist real quick. The market is already flooded with them over there.

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crescent June 28, 2009 - 9:40 pm

Well, Ben, that would be too much to ask a New Yorker wouldn’t it? To acknowledge when their transit system is giving them a deal?

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JMP June 29, 2009 - 10:24 am

Working from home, I don’t ride the trains that often anymore. But I had to go on an excursion yesterday. I had forgotten the details of the fare hike, but remembered it was happening yesterday, so I went to the MTA website.

Would it have killed the MTA to have posted a prominent link on their website about the new fare info, with a clear label? Alternately, was it foolish of me to assume that mta.info would be the quickest and easiest way to find the details of the new fares?

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Raising the fares but not telling anyone :: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog June 29, 2009 - 12:23 pm

[…] we all know because we pay attention to these things, the MTA raised their fares yesterday at 12:01 a.m. Throughout the system, stations featured SubTalk posters with the new fare […]

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Alon Levy June 29, 2009 - 2:06 pm

You shouldn’t include the free transfers. The MTA isn’t doing people special favors by letting them transfer from one bus to another for free; it’s fulfilling its job giving them access to transit. Without double-counting free transfers, the real fare is way higher than $1.56: just using an Unlimited Monthly the average number of times gives a fare of $1.59!

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Doug July 1, 2009 - 9:31 pm

The 15% discount is shockingly regressive. How many times have I seen poor people (how could I possibly know that) feeding $2 into the machine, basically throwing away 30 cents each time?

I think it’s the city’s way of subtly taxing tourists as well.

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