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To the editor:
Commuters should hold accountable any public official, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board member, or transit advocate who opposes future planned 4-percent fare hikes in 2025. The increases were previously assumed as part of the MTA's $51 billion 2020-2024 Five-Year Capital Plan.
In the end, quality and frequency of service is dependent upon secure revenue streams. We all will have to contribute — be it at the fare box or through tax revenues generated by different levels of government. Fare hikes are periodically required if the MTA and operating agencies such as the NYC Transit bus, subway and Staten Island Railway, MTA Bus, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad are to provide the services millions of New Yorkers count on daily. They are inevitable, due to increasing costs of labor, power, fuel, supplies, materials, routine safety, state of good repair, replacement of worn out rolling stock, upgrades to stations, yards and shops necessary to run any transit system and inflation.
In 2023, the MTA lost $700 million to fare evasion. There is little reason to believe that this year’s figures will change significantly. In return for honest riders paying the new 4 percent-fare increase, the MTA must step up and contribute, by working to reduce annual fare evasion by several hundred million. A fare increase also requires MTA fair reforms.
Again, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
Larry Penner
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