The MTA’s board – including Chairman Joe Lhota, who will step down on Friday in order to run for mayor — approved sweeping fare and toll hikes at their monthly board meeting this morning that will raise the price of a monthly MetroCard from $104 to a whopping $112.
The hikes will also make weekly unlimited ride cards $30 – up a dollar from their current price – and will include a twenty five cent increase to the base fare, bringing it to $2.50.
And there will be a $1 green fee every time a rider gets a new MetroCard from the machine – which means the rider opted not to refill a current MetroCard.
Officials scrapped a plan to eliminate the seven percent bonus on pay-per-ride purchases over $10 following outcry from the public.
Instead, the MTA will lower the bonus to five percent. But it will kick in on purchases five dollars and over, an effort to take the sting out of raising the base fare to $2.50.
A single ride ticket – typically used by tourists and non-regular riders – will rise to $2.75, up from $2.50.
The hikes go into effect in March.
Board members overwhelmingly expressed regret at hiking fares, but said they had no choice.
“What you have before you is the best of a not-so-great situation,” said board member Andrew Albert.
Nearly all said the system must receive more funding to take the burden off of riders.
“Government seems to lack a will to find an alternative,” said Charles Moerdler.
He said he’d support a tax on high incomes to fund mass transit. “Yes that tax would hit me and damn it, its a good idea,” he said.
The board also approved toll hikes on the agency’s nine crossings.
Those hikes will raise the price of a cash crossing on the Verrazano Bridge from $13 to $15.
E-ZPass fares on most major crossings – like the Midtown Tunnel and the Triboro Bridge – will go from $4.80 to $5.33 each way.
Board member Allen Cappelli voted against the toll hikes, saying they hurt small businesses and unfairly target Staten Island.
“Its a plan that’s antiquated and needs to be changed,” he said.
He was the only no vote.
Also, LIRR and Metro-North fares will rise an average of 8.19 percent to 9.31 percent.
The increases come one day after it was revealed that Lhota will step down on Friday in order to run on the GOP ticket for mayor. Lhota has been talked up for in recent months after the MTA performed well after Hurricane Sandy.
Sources said that MTA board member Fernando Ferrer will soon be named the vice chairman, which means he will run the board when Lhota steps down.