Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Fare Hikes

Fare Hike 2010: Your Chance to Prop Up Albany

By Ben Fried | Mar 12, 2010 | 10 Comments

Straphangers, are you ready to subsidize the runaway state budget? By popular demand, here’s an updated graphic depiction of how the state of New York stole dedicated transit tax revenue from the MTA in last year’s deficit reduction package. The $190 million pot of money is known as the state’s 18-B obligation to the MTA. […]

The Truth About Student Fares: MTA a Huge Bargain for State and City

By Noah Kazis | Mar 1, 2010 | 16 Comments

The state and city spend about 58 times more per student on yellow school buses than what’s on the table for student MetroCards. Image: manyhighways via Flickr. A new round of MTA Board hearings gets started this week, and the biggest flashpoint is sure to be the student MetroCard program. New York City school children […]

Twenty-One NYC Reps Back Brodsky’s Student Fare Falsehood

By Noah Kazis | Feb 22, 2010 | 15 Comments

On Friday we noted that Assembly Member Richard Brodsky’s latest anti-transit argument — that "the actual cost of free and discounted student fares is close to zero" — doesn’t hold water. A letter from Brodsky addressed to MTA CEO Jay Walder calls for reinstating student MetroCards, laying blame for the program’s potential elimination at the […]

Congestion Pricing Can Help Save Working NYC Families $2,300 Per Year

By Noah Kazis | Feb 16, 2010 | 2 Comments

Without congestion pricing, fare hikes will hit New York’s many transit-using families hard. Image: Ed Yourdon via Flickr. Without bold action from legislators to fund transit, middle-class New York families will have to spend $2,300 more per year to get around the city even as the quality of the service they’re paying for declines, according […]

More Bad News for Transit Funding: Payroll Tax Comes Up Lame Again

By Noah Kazis | Feb 3, 2010 | 8 Comments

The MTA’s budget picture took another turn for the worse today. The payroll tax instituted as part of last year’s funding package continues to raise far less revenue than expected. Which means that even if the extensive service cuts on the table take effect, the MTA will still have to deal with a $400 million […]

Transit Fare Inflation Hitting Health Insurance-Like Levels?

By Elana Schor | Jan 5, 2010 | 1 Comment

That’s the implication buried in a roundup of dismal news from urban transit agencies that ran in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. After noting the overall ridership decreases tallied by APTA and the specter of punitive service cuts in many cities, the newspaper noted: Riders of Chicago’s El train, shown above, were spared fare hikes in […]

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