By Juan Soto
Get your wallets ready for another fare hike.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board Thursday voted to increase the base fare on subways and buses from $2.50 to $2.75, effective March 22.
The new fares includes a $4.50 raise on the 30-day MetroCard, establishing the new price at $116.50, up from the current $112.
The MTA noted the new approved fares increased by an average of 4 percent.
The state agency proposed a $32 billion, five-year capital-spending project, but MTA officials said the funding is currently short by $15 billion.
Fare hikes will occur every two years as part of the MTA’s financial plan. In 2013, the base fare for subways and buses was also raised by a quarter, from $2.25 to the current $2.50 level.
“Our financial plan assumes modest biennial fare and toll increases, and the board has chosen options with lower increases for our most frequent customers,” Thomas Prendergast , the MTA chairman, after the board acted.
The authority also voted to raise the seven-day MetroCard from $30 to $31, and the bonus for the per-ride MetroCard will go from 5 percent to 11 percent.
Straphangers, however, will have to add at least $5.50 to the MetroCard before they get the bonus. Currently the 5 percent bonus starts with $5 additions to the card.
Gene Russianoff, from the transit advocacy group Straphangers Campaign, said “fixing our transit system is critical to New York’s economic health and quality of life.”
He called on the local government to increase its funding for the MTA’s capital plan.
“The city should be doing better by the riding public,” he said. Russianoff said the city’s contribution has been running at $100 million a year for most years since 1982.
Reach reporter Juan Soto by e-mail at jsoto@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4564.
