As the MTA prepares to read the MetroCard its final rites, the Transit Museum has made available online a series of old TV spots promoting the blue and gold cards. Imagine the novelty of transferring for free between buses and subways. It was, they said, the “beginning of a whole new transit system.”
As with any transportation business, the MTA enjoys a small but significant revenue stream from unused pre-paid fares. For instance, if I were to buy a $25 pay-per-ride MetroCard and use only $20 of it before it gets lost to the sands of time, the MTA would enjoy a $5 profit from my card. Last year, when the MTA announced $53 million in fare media liability, I explored the whys of it. That budget item had jumped by 12.5 percent, and I speculated that New Yorkers simply don’t want to take the time to do the math involved with the MetroCard bonus system.
Over the next year, the Daily News reports today, the MTA again expects nearly $52 million to fill their coffers from unused MetroCards. The News notes that this amount is the same as 23 million rides at the base fare, but I have to wonder if it will truly be that high. If the MTA is charging $1 per new MetroCard, will straphangers be more inclined to zero their cards over their lifespans? Or will people simply refill with no regard to the discount or an uneven balance? Plenty of people will still buy cards and forget about them, but if the MTA is requiring us all to watch our MetroCards’ bottom lines, the fare media liability total could shrink a bit.
As the date of the MTA’s board-oriented board meeting draws closer, details of the 2011 fare hike proposal are beginning to emerge. Yesterday, we heard how unlimited cards will become limited, and today, we know more about the authority’s plans for single-ride and pay-per-ride users. According to The Daily News, the MTA is going to raise the fares for the single-ride paper tickets from $2.25 to $2.50 and will drop the pay-per-ride discount from 15 percent to 10 percent.
According to Pete Donohue, this plan is apparently designed to have a smaller impact than the unlimited-ride increases. Only 2.1 percent of subway riders use the one-way paper tickets, and the base fare would remain $2.25 for pay-per-ride card users and those paying for bus rides in coins. The 10 percent fare discount will impact the 36 percent of riders who use the pay-per-ride cards, and instead of getting 10.35 rides for the price of nine, these riders will now get 11 rides for the price of 10. The average cost per swipe will increase by approximately four percent from $1.96 to $2.05.
For the MTA, their overall goal is a 7.5 percent fare hike, and unlimited card users are going to be hit the worst. In reality, the average fare across all payment systems remains lower than it did in 1996, and the authority is trying to at least keep pace with inflation. Come January, we’ll all be paying more for our subway rides with less service than we had three weeks ago.
When details of a fare hike emerged on Friday, straphangers long used to unlimited ride MetroCards gasped. In addition to raising the costs of cards across the board, the MTA, said the reports, planned to cap the number of rides available on the so-called unlimited ride cards.
Today, the Daily News has the details: A 30-day unlimited ride card would allow the user take 90 trips, and the authority may cap the 7-days at 21 rides. Under the current rates of $89 and $27 respectively, this move would cap the minimum cost of a ride at $0.99 for the monthly and $1.26 for the weekly. If the rates go up as expected, the lowest possible cost per ride would be approximately $1.11 for the 30-day cards and $1.33 for the weeklies.
According to the News, the MTA alleges that the vast majority of riders do not average three swipes per day for their unlimited ride cards. Thus, this cap would impact those people who are abnormally heavy subway users and those subway scammers who try to sell unlimited ride swipes at the turnstile for $2.25 to unsuspecting customers. Despite these intentions, riders are wary of the proposal, and advocate groups believe the MTA’s approach is misguided. “The MTA’s financial problems are real, but I’m very concerned they’re going to sock it to the riding public to the exclusion of other groups [that] benefit from transit, like drivers and businesses,” Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign said.
For what it’s worth, during my personal experiments, I’ve found my monthly usage to be less than the MTA’s rumored caps. In my November 2007 MetroCard challenge, I rode 74 times while working a regular job, and in my November 2008 challenge, I rode 73 times while commuting as a student. In October 2009, while commuting as a student and working a part time job, I swiped in 88 times. Reporters and messengers, among others, will far exceed the 90-swipe limit.
The fare hike, which the MTA will debate over the next few months, is set to go into effect on January 1, 2011. Among the other parts of the proposals is a planned $1 surcharge for all MetroCards, and the MTA will, in all likelihood, make unlimited cards refillable at the same time. Soon enough, those unlimited cards won’t be so unlimited after all.
As the MTA begins to prepare for a 2011 fare hike, the authority is considering a plan to implement a surcharge on new MetroCards and to cap the number of rides available to those who use weekly and monthly cards, The New York Post reported this morning. While the single-ride fare would remain at $2.25, the total fare hike package will result in a 7.5 percent increase.
The news of a fare hike comes amidst a year of cuts and budgetary problems for the beleaguered transit authority. Faced with an initial $800 million budget gap, the authority had to implement sweeping service cuts in June that saw two subway lines axed and numerous bus routes scaled back or eliminated entirely. Still, despite internal cost-cuttings, the MTA has to find $400 million, and with Albany silent on such revenue-generating proposals as East River bridge tolls or congestion pricing, the fare hikes remain one of the MTA’s few reliable sources of revenue. Additionally, Albany granted the MTA the ability to issue a 2011 fare increase when the legislature approved the payroll tax funding plan last year.
Per The Post, the hikes would be put in place or or near January 1, and the proposal looks a little something like this:
- Riders would pay a $1 surcharge every time they get a new MetroCard from a vending machine instead of refilling an old one.
- $27 weekly MetroCards would rise by about 4%.
- $89 monthly cards would increase to just under $100.
- Number of rides on weekly and monthly cards would be capped.
- Single-ride fare would remain at $2.25.
- Elimination of off-peak fare pricing on all LIRR and Metro-North trains.
- Overall fare hike would be 7.5%.
Tom Namako’s sources defended the need to charge for a new MetroCard, one of the proposal’s more controversial aspects. “When I see what it costs to produce MetroCards, it’s not efficient, and it makes me sick when I see them strewn across the floor at stations,” his source said. For this surcharge to be an equitable one, however, the MTA will have to address the fact that Unlimited ride cards are currently not refillable. Being forced to pay a surcharge because the system is flawed would penalize the 50 percent of riders who rely on those weekly or monthly passes.
Despite these increases, the single-ride fare would stay the same. Less than 10 percent of riders pay the full $2.25 these days, and it’s clear that the MTA is trying to change the fact that, in inflation-adjusted terms, the average fare is lower now than it was in 1996. “We’re very interested in keeping the single-ride fare at the level it’s at now,” a Post source said.
On the record, the MTA cautioned that these rumored plans are just that. Official overall budget numers are not due until later this month, and a specific fare hike proposal would not arrive until the fall. “The rescue agreement reached with the Governor and Legislature last spring called for a 7.5% increase in revenues from MTA fares and tolls in January 2011, and despite an $800 million budget shortfall caused by deteriorating tax revenues, it has always been our intention to try to adhere to this agreement,” the agency said in statement. “As we have consistently said, the amount of the increase must be determined in the context of our overall financial plan, which is not finalized and will be presented to the MTA Board later this month. At that time the Board will be asked to authorize public hearings on the fare increase to be held in the fall. Only after those hearings will a final decision be made on both the level of the increase and how it will be implemented.”
In the Sunday Times this week, City Critic Ariel Kaminer profiled the MTA’s new contactless fare payment trial. I first introduced the trial in late May and discussed the impending end of the MetroCard swipe two weeks ago. In that sense, Kaminer’s piece is similar to the prior coverage. She tests the technology in New York City Transit’s subways, along the PATH trains and in New Jersey Transit buses and finds the intermodal system in various states of readiness.
Where her piece gets more interesting, however, is in its discussion of those who are and are not using the Pay Pass. “If news of this brave experiment hasn’t quite made its way to the bus drivers of the Garden State,” she writes, “it doesn’t seem to have seized the riders of Manhattan either. Stand at the PayPass turnstile in the Grand Central subway station and, I predict, your interest in technology and transportation will give out hours before you see anyone even try it.” A few straphangers with whom she spoke said they were interested in but had not planned to take advantage of the MTA’s six-month trial.
And so this begs the question: What good is a trial if no one comes? How will the MTA evaluate a technology in use along very few bus routes and only a select stops along one subway line? It can’t assess how the Pay Pass fares under the pressures of regular and heavy users of the transit system and is, for now, only as comprehensive as the trial makes it out to be. MTA officials assure me that they will consider these obstacles as they evaluate the trial, but until the authority prepares for a system-wide rollout of something else, I can’t get too excited for this fare payment technology of the future.
How much can the MTA discern about a potential replacement for the MetroCard from a six-month pilot program? As the authority unveiled a new contactless PayPass program yesterday morning, that’s the question hovering just beneath the surface of New York’s next leap in fare-payment technology.
The details are mostly as I reported last week. On Tuesday morning, the MTA, Port Authority and New Jersey Transit along with MasterCard launched a six-month trial that will run until November. The trial enables transit riders to purchase fares and transfer between these independent systems by tapping a credit or debit card equipped with the proper RFID chip at the stations equipped to handle it. In New York City, only the Lexington Ave. IRT stations in Manhattan and Borough Hall in Brooklyn along with eight bus routes will accept the PayPass trial.
Officials from the various transit agencies praised the openness of the system. It is the first time in New York City’s history that the three rail carriers will accept the same type of payment. “The technology that we’re testing will make life easier for our customers and help reduce our cost of doing business at the same time,” MTA Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder said in a statement. “By using an open network we’ll break down regional barriers and let people travel across the region with a card that’s already sitting in their wallets.”
From an implementation standpoint, the idea is simple. For the first two months of the pilot program, MasterCard users will be able to tap and go, and for the final four months, the pilot will be open to users of most major credit cards. Those who pay per ride won’t need to enroll while those who want to take advantage of discounted fares or unlimited ride options should head over to the Ride NY/NJ website. As I wondered last week, how will this system scale when the MTA attempts to role it out systemwide?
Beyond the technical aspects, though, the MTA has been very transparent in its goals. Walder wants to speed up bus boarding and turnstile movements while cutting down on the amount it costs the agency to collect fares. A savings of just two cents per dollar collected would net the MTA an additional $30 million a year. Additionally, this swipe-less technology will provide riders with a complete statement of transit trips made each month. That information today remains a mystery to all but the most dedicated travelers.
“The first thing people will notice is that the days of the mis-swipe are behind them,” Walder said. “It’s simple and easy to use. You touch it to a pad. You immediately go through the turnstile or get on the bus, and there’s no question about doing it.”
Yet, I have to wonder about the efficacy of such a limited pilot program. In an ideal world where money is no obstacle, every station would be equipped with at least one turnstile able to handle the pilot technology. As it stands now, few — if any — straphangers would use the unlimited ride options because the pilot is limited to just one subway route. If the agency can’t determine how widespread use would impact the new system, can they adequately assess the pilot program?
I posed that question to Aaron Donovan at the MTA yesterday, and he assured me that the authority would consider this problem in judging the new fare-collection technology. The authority anticipates that three types of costumers will use the new pilot: early adopters; regular commuters who use only the pilot routes and stations; and infrequent riders willing to use the Tap-and-Go technology to pay. Those who ride as I do — with a 30-day unlimited ride card — won’t be represented initially.
Still, authority officials believe the new faster fare payment system will be a hit. “People are going to look at it and say, ‘Why didn’t I have this sooner?'” Walder said. “It’s going to make their lifes easier. It’s going to be simple. It’s going to be quick. It’s going to be convenient.”
After the jump, a video on the new PayPass trial with soundbites from the region’s transit officials.
Since taking over the reins of the MTA last fall, current CEO and Chair Jay Walder has pushed the authority to adopt newer technologies quicker than the MTA had in the past. Coming from London, Walder was intimately familiar with the contact-less Oyster Card program, and over the last few months, he has repeatedly highlighted how improving the efficiency of the agency’s fare-collection efforts can result in increased revenue by well over $30-40 million annually.
To that end, the MetroCard — a technology obsolete the day it was introduced — has been on borrowed time since Walder pledged a contact-less fare-payment system by 2014. Next week, this goal will take a big step forward as MasterCard, the MTA, PATH and New Jersey Transit will unveil a six-month pilot program that the MTA hopes will extend to the entire system in short order. Heather Haddon of amNew York has some details:
The “smartcard” system allows straphangers to pass a specially equipped key chain, credit card or phone across a reader on a turnstile or bus fare box to pay, with participants registering to have the money drawn from their bank account, much like the E-Z pass for drivers. The system means less time at MetroCard machines and allows buses to get going faster, transit advocates say. “It’s amazingly quick,” said William Henderson, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.
The new program will be available along the Lexington Avenue subway line, along with the M14, M23, M79, M86, M101, M102, M103 and BxM7 bus lines, according to transit documents. The MTA estimates that more than 1 million riders could potentially benefit from it, including NJ Transit users. Still, participants at this stage in the game will have to buy a regular MetroCard to continue riding on other train or bus lines.
Currently, the website established for this pilot program is fairly bare bones, but through some Google sleuthing, I’ve uncovered a few other details and some screenshots of the website. Click the images to enlarge.
The New York City Transit trial will include a variety of fare-payment options. Those MasterCard users whose cards come equipped with a smart chip can either enroll in a plan or pay as they go. The pay-as-you-go option remains foolish because the charge will be a full $2.25 while the pre-paid pay-per-ride plans include the 15 percent fare bonus with an automatic renewal when account balances dip. Customers used to timed passes can opt to buy the equivalent a one-, seven-, 14- or 30-day unlimited MetroCard with an optional auto-renew at the end of the time period. In a sense, the pay pass is a glorified MetroCard EasyPayXpress plan that allows the MTA to improve its fare-collection efforts.
For now, reports Haddon, MasterCard is paying for the pilot, and the MTA will try to include more credit card companies and routes in the upcoming months. To make this work, the rollout will have to be comprehensive, and there will be an element of trial-and-error involved. Unless the MTA is limiting entrances at certain stations to only those using the PayPass, the need for a MetroCard to get anywhere else will trump those who use their MasterCards to swipe in a second or two faster than they otherwise would.
Still, while the MetroCard is on borrowed time, the authority must still address multiple issues. How will a program that requires online registration scale across a system of that averages five million riders a day? What will happen to riders who don’t have credit cards or don’t want to supply the MTA with their credit card info? And more importantly, will a credit card touch-and-go system be the final solution for a MetroCard replacement? The June 1 pilot will mark the next step forward, but miles remain until the MetroCard is phased out entirely.
Because New York City Transit needs a few months’ lead time in order to prepare MetroCard Vending Machines for half-priced student passes, the MTA Board will vote on the future of free student travel during its June 23 meeting, The Post reported on Saturday. “After you hit July, it would make things really difficult,” Hilary Ring, the MTA’s director of governmental affairs, said to lawmakers last week. “It’s not like you can just flip a switch or something; it’s more complicated than that.”
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, MTA officials are engaged with state representatives on potential student travel funding plans, but time is, of course, of the essence. We need the state to understand that we can’t continue to function as a free bus service,” Ring said. In related news, New York City announced recently that it will end courtesy busing for 5000 students who currently attend schools hard to reach via transit. While the MTA will see revenues improve when students must pay, the city’s less wealthy families will suffer.
Meanwhile, lawmakers have been notably silent, at least in public, on the topic of potential rescue plans. In March, Pedro Espada, the state senate majority leader, proposed a modest bridge toll with revenues earmarked for student travel, and new council transportation committee chair James Vacca has vaguely pledged to do “everything we can” to rescue the student MetroCards. For now, though, it appears that until the economy improves, students will be saddled with footing their own bill for travel come the fall.
When Tuesday dawned another cold, windy and rainy day, I pondered how New Yorkers ride the subway in those ugly conditions. On rainy days, the trains are damp and more crowded than usual. People who would otherwise walk or bike to their myriad destinations head underground for a ride free from rain.
Meanwhile, throughout the city, people running errands opt to duck underground as well. Instead of walking from, say, 50th St. to 40th St., the one-stop ride along the Sixth Ave. IND often calls out, and while 15 years ago, that ride would have cost $1.25, today, the Unlimited MetroCard urges you to take that one- or two-stop ride. Straphangers, in fact, get better deals on their weekly or monthly cards if they ride more frequently, and the MTA earns less per ride. In a way, it is a perverse incentive.
Today, the Unlimited MetroCard is a way of life. In January, over 50 percent of all non-student trips came from one of the four unlimited ride offerings. Yet, 12 years ago, few were aware of the looming debut of these cards that have changed the way we ride.
Gov. George Pataki first announced unlimited ride cards in early December 1997. Original plans called for a $63 30-day card, a $17 seven-day card and a $4 one-day fun pass. In a twist of history, the MTA could afford to offer these discount cards because of a surplus of tax revenue in 1997. The agency was expected to lose over $230 million on the per-ride discounts, and as riders today pay an inflation-adjusted fare that is 36 cents lower than the average fare was in 1996, this loss is still haunting the MTA today.
While the 30-day cards then — and still do today — require someone to ride at least 47 times to be a better deal than the pay-per-ride discounts, the new passes were designed to encourage use. Original MTA estimates projected 100 million more riders per year, an increase of six percent. ”The goal here,” Pataki said said to The Times, ”was very simply to empower the rider. Empower the person who takes the subway and the person who takes the bus by giving them the broadest possible range of options as to how they want to choose to use the mass transit system.”
When the unlimited cards debuted on July 4, 1998, they were an immediate hit. Even though plans for the one-day card were delayed, lines at the token booths snaked through stations, and New Yorkers were eager to take advantage of the potential savings. ”Maybe it would stop me from taking so many cabs,” one rider said at the time. ”It has to do with commitment. Once I’ve made that $17 investment up front, I see it as a free situation, rather than a $5 cab ride minus the dollar-and-a-half public transportation.”
The only down side riders could find was the original 18-minute use restriction. The unlimited ride cards could be used once system-wide every 18 minutes, and many straphangers taking short trips found themselves waiting for time to expire. Eventually, Transit agreed to reduce the limitations to their current form. Today, riders can swipe in at the same station only once every 18 minutes but can enter the system at other points before the time limit is up.
Immediately, the savings were apparent. As The Daily News noted, messenger services and frequent train riders were going to realize savings of hundreds of dollars annually. First day sales were very brisk and have continued to be for the past 12 years.
Today, the unlimited ride cards are still a great deal. As a student and frequent subway rider, my pay-per-ride cost off of the $89 monthly card is only just around $1.10 per ride. I can hop on and hop off the trains and buses as I please, and I don’t have to think twice about taking a trip we used to view as unnecessary 15 or 20 years ago. The Unlimited MetroCards changed the way we ride and interact with the system, and that was true transit innovation for New York City.