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NYC Gaf: MTA thinking of hiking fare prices next year ($2.75 base/$125 monthly)

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G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Link.

Say hello to the $2.75 subway ride and the $125 monthly unlimited MetroCard?

MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast revealed at a hearing Thursday that the authority’s labor problems could result in riders getting socked with a 12% fare hike next year — triple the percentage increase the authority already has in store.

The wallet-busting scenario could happen if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has to give all of its workers modest raises without work-rule changes that would produce an equal amount of budget savings, he said.

“It would be difficult for me to overstate the adverse repercussions for both our riders and our region,” Prendergast said in warning of the possibility of the 12% fare hike during a hearing held by state legislators in Albany.

The only other option the MTA could take that Prendergast mentioned would be for the authority to slash billions from its capital construction and maintenance program, which would translate into scaled-back projects to purchase new buses and trains, replace rails, fix signals and overhaul stations.

“This would be a terrible choice for our riders and our region,” Prendergast said of the alternative.

The MTA’s budget plans already envision a 4% increase in fares and tolls next year. A 12% hike, applied evenly across all fare-payment options, would boost the price of the unlimited-ride 30-day MetroCard to about $125, from the existing $112; elevate the cost of a 7-day MetroCard to about $34, from the current $30; and send the base fare up to $2.75, from $2.50.

One leader of a union representing MTA workers said the authority’s brass can’t be trusted.

“The MTA’s credibility in predicting costs and revenue is less than zero,” railed Anthony Simon, a spokesman for a coalition of Long Island Railroad worker unions. “They will say anything to try to pit riders against employees.”

All but one of the roughly 60 unions that represent MTA workers are working without a contract because transit officials and labor leaders have been unable to successfully negotiate new agreements in recent years. But the one union that does have a contract, covering the 650-member Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department, got it, including retroactive raises, thanks to a vote of the MTA board on Wednesday — a development that did not go unnoticed by leaders of other unions. MTA officials have said the new contract for its police force provides three years of raises without increasing expenses because of savings created through union concessions, like having new recruits devote 2% of base pay to cover healthcare premiums; but the officials have declined to provide a cost analysis of the concessions that would show how much savings will be produced.

In the ongoing impasse in contract negotiations between the MTA and seven LIRR unions, a presidential board of independent mediators in December recommended the authority grant annual raises averaging 2.85% per year for six years. Under the proposal, workers would have to make their first-ever contributions to healthcare premiums — representing about 2% of base pay — but wouldn’t have work-rule changes imposed.

The proposal was made after the independent panel heard testimony from both sides about the MTA’s finances, the compensation given to other railroad workers in the region, the cost of living in New York, and other relevant issues.

Earlier this month the MTA rejected the mediators’ proposal as one that would be far too costly. Under federal law the LIRR workers, who have been without a contract for more than three years, can legally strike as early as March if the authority does not request additional hearings.

If the proposed contract floated by the mediators were applied to all of the MTA’s unions, the additional cost in the first year, including retroactive raises, would be about $700 million, Prendergast told lawmakers on Thursday. And in subsequent years the additional cost would be about $400 million per year, he said.

But the mediators who handled the LIRR case analyzed the MTA’s finances and determined the authority could afford to pay for “modest” raises of 2.85% for the railroad workers. They said the MTA’s finances have improved along with the economy since the depths of the Great Recession. The mediators cited the state’s creation a few years ago of new revenue streams for the authority, mainly a payroll tax applied to businesses in the MTA’s service area.

The MTA was created by and is essentially an extension of New York State. If necessary, government officials could allocate additional subsidies to cover MTA operations, the mediators in the LIRR case noted.
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G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
tarius1210 said:
Our transit system is fantastic but...I don't think this is a good idea.
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I'm conflicted. It would suck to have to pay more, but at least (some of) the workers will get a raise. I sure as hell wouldn't want the MTA to slash their maintenance budget. MTA has been rolling out new buses and trains the past year or so. The 7 line has finally gotten new trains and I love them. Not to mention the stations that have been fixed up.
 
P

Pau

Member
I'm starting to wonder if it'll just be cheaper to drive our car up here and pay for gas and ridiculous parking prices.
 
S

Stet

Banned
Your subway fares are only TWO DOLLARS AND SEVENTY FIVE CENTS?

We only have THREE lines in Toronto and ours are $3!
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Wow the NY Daily News obvious tabloid language designed to make you feel maximum outrage is pretty amazing even for them on this one.
 
T

tino

Banned
My anus is kind of loose at this point.

They better restore the R train back to regular run if they want my money.
 
G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
tino said:
My anus is kind of loose at this point.

They better restore the R train back to regular run if they want my money.
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You know it's going to take almost all of 2014 to fix the R tunnels right? lol
 
D

Dragon

Banned
GK86 said:
I'm conflicted. It would suck to have to pay more, but at least (some of) the workers will get a raise. I sure as hell wouldn't want the MTA to slash their maintenance budget. MTA has been rolling out new buses and trains the past year or so. The 7 line has finally gotten new trains and I love them. Not to mention the stations that have been fixed up.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately there are plenty of people that can't even afford that hike in monthly (or the people who ended up getting really hosed when they removed the bonuses).
 
S

Sealion88

Member
damn this sucks... well i heard they were gonna get rid of metro cards soon and replace it with a credit card thing like in chicago or in asia.
 
D

Dragon

Banned
gcubed said:
I mean shit, even by US standards these fares are cheap.
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Yeah in reality, being able to go from the UWS to Brooklyn on 2.75 is ridiculous. DC Metro may have cleaner trains (at least the ones I've ridden on) but it's so incredibly complicated comparably.
 
M

Mercury Fred

Banned
Fuck the MTA.

Almost every line is unreliable. Night service on the L is a joke. Service anytime on the G is a huge joke. I've started opening the emergency door and walking onto the train for free when it's busy enough and I can get away with it. I figure each one is a drop in the bucket for the countless times I've swiped my card and found out after the fact (because of the MTA's opaque/ non-existant messaging) that the train would be like 40 minutes to arrive or some BS and I'm forced to find an alternate transportation method after I've already swiped my card.

Fuck the MTA.
 
G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Stet said:
You're building MORE subway lines!?
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More like finishing it. 2nd Ave line has been under construction (although on and off, more off than on) for more than 80 years. Only recently has construction started back up to finally (fingers cross) to finish it.
 
T

tbm24

Member
At this point I'm not surprised. What can I do aside just eat the cost and continue to want to burn the E train line to the ground.
 
F

Final Boss

Banned
Let's be honest, they can do what they want and not a damn thing anyone can do about it


I wish every subway train had the electronic signs showing the current/next stops
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
I'm ok with it honestly.

I mean, I paid more than that in gas before moving here. It's a good fucking deal.
 
S

Sealion88

Member
GK86 said:
More like finishing it. 2nd Ave line has been under construction (although on and off, more off than on) for more than 80 years. Only recently has construction started back up to finally (fingers cross) to finish it.
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2017 but could be delayed like always. It really sucks riding the 456 trains during rush hr.
 
G

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Sealion88 said:
2017 but could be delayed like always. It really sucks riding the 456 trains during rush hr.
Click to expand...

It is amazing how fucking packed those three lines are.

StoOgE said:
But in the summer we get to steal the F trains! Oh god do I love those fucking cars for 3 months, then it's back to the normal fucking busted C trains.
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They really need to replace those C trains already. Its sad watching those things roll into the station.

APKmetsfan said:
As someone not in NYC 125 a bucks month is insanely good for 24/7 service. It works on buses too?
Click to expand...

Yup.
 
V

vapor

Member
For some perspective, the cheapest travel card covering central London for a month is $200ish... and it goes up to $500 if you live out on the edge.
 
L

Lionheart1337

Member
ralph.gif


Meh, it's not that bad.
 
B

BlazinAm

Junior Member
APKmetsfan said:
As someone not in NYC 125 a bucks month is insanely good for 24/7 service. It works on buses too?
Click to expand...

Yes there is a time interval in which you can't use it again but if you go from Bus to Bus or Train to Bus you are usually good.
I think it is a twenty minute wait period.

Cost is not really an issue per say rather the service improvements happen so slowly, I guess that is what happens when the subway system is so old.
 
Y

YoungHav

Banned
This is fucked up. A monthly was like around $80-90 not too long ago. Price hikes with no improvement in service. It hits poor people the worse also.
 
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