NEW YORK — Transit authorities yesterday made official what many observers have long suspected: Subway and bus fares are going up, Newday reported.
The question now is: How much? Holding the fare at $1.50 was not among the options presented to Metropolitan Transportation Authority board members at their monthly meeting yesterday, quashing hopes that a fare hike — the first since 1995 — could be avoided.
Instead, with new figures showing a $1.1-billion MTA budget deficit in 2003, and swelling to $1.7 billion in 2004, the board was asked to consider three alternatives:
-A $1.75 fare with severe service cuts, including a 10 percent reduction in weekend service.
-A $2 fare with an increase in MetroCard discounts similar in proportion to the current ones.
-A $2 fare with deeper MetroCard discounts than now available.
Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North riders would also feel the pinch under all three scenarios, with fare increases ranging from 10 to 33 percent. Tolls would also go up 25 to 50 cents on MTA-owned bridges and tunnels, which include the Triborough, Throgs Neck and Bronx-Whitestone bridges, and the Queens Midtown and Brooklyn Battery tunnels.
MTA chairman Peter Kalikow said to maintain the current fare would be “the first step on a slippery slope downhill” toward the bad old days of the 1980s, when crime, graffiti and chaos ruled the system.
“We know that there will be a fare increase. We don’t know what the exact amount will be,” Kalikow told reporters after the meeting. “We’re trying to do this as open-mindedly as possible.”
With the MTA under fire for the keeping its finances under close wraps and a broad coalition of civic groups having already launched an anti-fare hike campaign, Kalikow promised unprecedented public review of the budget process. In addition to inviting public comments on its Web site, www.mta.info, MTA officials will meet with rider groups, elected officials and the press, he said.
Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign, a frequent MTA critic, said it was the first time the agency had allowed for such public scrutiny.
But, he warned, “a fare hike in a time of recession is going to really be murder for many, many New Yorkers . . . I think the MTA is going to get an earful on their Web site from the riding public.”
Security at the MTA’s Madison Avenue headquarters was tight, but chants of “Save the fare! No service cuts!” and “MTA! Find the money!” could be heard from the street below while board members examined the budget outline.
MTA budget director Gary Caplan explained that a slower-than-expected economic recovery, increased pension costs and the loss of several one-shot cash infusions that helped patch together this year’s budget were responsible for the deficit.
A $1.75 fare would help raise $460 million in added revenues over two years, while a $2 fare would help yield as much as $1.3 billion. The MTA is also counting on about $1 billion over two years in cost efficiencies, plus $630 million in savings as a result of debt restructuring.
Assemb. Scott Stringer (D-Manhattan) was among a parade of public speakers who railed against a fare hike. “The people who need transportation services tend to have the least amount of resources,” he said. “We need to ensure that the working poor, middle-income people, do not get socked with the burden of having to deal with the budget crisis.”
Officials said that different aspects of the three proposals could be mixed and matched, and new elements developed. They also stressed that since the introduction of the MetroCard and related discounts in 1997, the average cost of a trip on subways and buses has plunged to $1.04.
Gov. George Pataki, who selects a majority of the board’s members, told reporters yesterday that MTA officials are going to “have to justify whatever they are talking about.”
“My goal from the beginning has been to try to expand ridership and cut costs, as opposed to increasing fares,” he said. “But we’re going to have to sit down and see what they’ve proposed.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters he would wait and see what steps the MTA takes.
“I’m sympathetic to the MTA,” he said. “They’d like to improve services. They already have a deficit. They don’t have enough money. Join the club.”
More than one board member chided the protesters outside for taking an adversarial position unhelpful to the process.
“Have proposals. Have some ideas,” said board member Kenneth Caruso. “I, for one, will listen.”