(Newsday published the following article by Joshua Robin.)
NEW YORK — In the good old days, a fare hike meant dropping only another nickel or two.
This time around the Metropolitan Transportation Authority must figure out how to guide 7 million daily subway riders through a labyrinth of MetroCard pricing formulas and transit discounts — all by May 4, the day the base fare rises to $2.
“This fare policy review is the first ever within the bounds of a full-blown MetroCard customer service, business, and operating environment,” states a January report by MTA budget director Gary Caplan.
While the 50-cent subway and bus hike is a done deal, officials acknowledge they don’t yet have answers to all of the straphangers’ questions.
To wit:
— How riders with weekly and monthly MetroCards bought before May 4 will receive refunds.
— Whether tokens will be accepted on and after May 4.
— If MetroCards adjusted for the fare hike will be available before May 4.
— If a program allowing travelers within New York City to ride commuter railroads for a discounted rate will be in effect by May 4.
“Before May 4, all these questions will be answered,” said Paul Fleuranges, a spokesman for NYC Transit, noting the agency probably will formulate a plan by the end of the month.
The MTA voted unanimously Thursday to raise fares by the biggest margin in New York history to bridge an estimated two-year, $1-billion gap. Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad tickets also will jump an average of 25 percent, while tolls on area bridges will rise 50 cents.
After weeks of protest leading up to the board’s vote, criticism of the fare hike Friday was muted. But straphangers were grumbling about another fare-saving plan: closure of up to 62 part-time token booths, which will be shut between July and September, a move the MTA says will save $3.45 million over two years.
A recent Police Department analysis found five of the 62 booths were hot spots for petty crimes.
Fleuranges said the police reviewed the planned closures and concluded there was little heightened safety risk for subway riders.
Straphangers, however, panned the closings, even though it was a substantial revision of the MTA’s original proposal to shut 177 booths.
“That’s stupid,” Russell Smith, 42, said when told of Thursday’s vote, speaking at one booth on the chopping block — the 33rd Street stop on the downtown No. 6 line.
Two years ago, Smith said, he switched to buying tokens at the booths when a machine swallowed his $20 bill.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Smith, a Brooklyn carpenter, said of the planned closings. “People don’t like to trust the machines.”
As he spoke, a woman rushing for the 6 train glowered in frustration at two machines nearby.
The first one, Angelina Lopez explained, wouldn’t take her $20 bill. The second one took the bill, but wouldn’t give her more than $6 in change.
She ended up buying a $20 card when all she had wanted was a single ride.
“What are you supposed to do?” Lopez asked.