The future of fare increases: a $168 monthly MetroCard in 2023?

So we told you about those looming fare hikes last week, and probably should have included the advice to go out and get a bike. Even though the exact number hasn’t been handed down by the MTA yet, subway rider advocates the Straphangers Campaign asked the city’s Independent Budget Office to do a study based on the MTA’s previous 8.4% hikes in 2011 and 2013, and if the hikes stay at that rate, we’ve got an answer for how much the subway will cost your rotten children in 2023: $168 for a monthly MetroCard. Ugh.

Now again, this isn’t set in stone, and the MTA insists that they’ll let announce the 2015 fare hike at fare increase hearings and that it will “depend on the agency’s overall finances.” Still, Straphangers points out that the MTA’s four-year financial plan includes 8.4% hikes in 2015 and 2017, so it’s not crazy to think they’ll still be doing this for ten years. With that in mind, Straphangers asked the IBO to study what would happen if the MTA kept raising fares at the same rate.

The IBO study revealed that the price of a monthly would rise to $168 and the base fare for a ride would rise to $3.75. Walking will still be free, but our skies will no doubt be filled with terrible killer robots. The IBO report ends on a note than can either be seen as good news or as bad news: “[S]ome fare increases are likely. The timing and amount of those increases, however, may be very different from those analyzed here.” So…maybe 10%, but maybe 2%. Awesome.

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