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BACKLASH AGAINST NEW TRANSIT FARE HIKE
By Lauren Woods
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has not pleased passengers with its recent increase in fare prices that will begin May 1, 2003.
This is not the first time that the MTA has increased fares. There was a 15 percent fare hike in 1990. The last time this happened in 1995 riders experienced a 9 percent increase. The recent 25 percent fare hike will raise the cost of traveling on the subway and buses in New York City from a $1.50 to $2.00. An increase of 50 cents will occur on MTA bridges and tunnels and 25 cents on others. Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad fares will also increase 25 percent. The fare hike is supposedly being used to combat the estimated $952,000,000 deficit the MTA will be experiencing over the next two years.
Commuters like Robert Wood, 22, of Poughkeepsie are not very pleased with the new MTA plan.
“I am a recent college graduate looking for a job in Manhattan and I don’t have much money,” Wood said. “So, it’s tough for me to go to interviews. Every form of transit that I need to move me to a potential job has increased in price and that really hurts me financially.”
Wood is not alone. Gene Russianoff, attorney for the Straphangers Campaign and New York Public Interest Research Group, agrees that commuters are being financially hurt by the new plan. Russianoff is extremely let down by the new fare hike that was instituted.
“I am extremely disappointed,” Russianoff said. “ I had hoped to get a less severe hike but now New York has the highest based fare in the country when compared to other cities.”
Russianoff went on to say that even though the fare hike is discouraging there were some progressive ideas instituted by the MTA.
“The new MTA plan did take some of our Straphanger Campaign ideas into consideration,” Russianoff said. “ We beat them back and saved 150 token booths in the city that were going to be closed. The new plan also will give better fare discounts for multi-ride MetroCard purchases taking into consideration the needs of low to moderate income people here in New York,” Russianoff said.
Peter S. Kalikow, MTA Chairman commented on the recent fare hike in a press release posted on the agency’s website.
“The reality is that we have just experienced the longest period in MTA history without fare and toll increases - eight straight years,” Kalikow said. “They didn’t happen by accident, it happened through tightly managing our operations and through the creative use of new technologies like MetroCard and EZ-pass. The fare hike will ultimately ensure that the New York metropolitan region will continue to have the best transit system in the world.”
For all your questions, concerns and complaints on this issue do not bother to contact the MTA. They simply have “no comment.”