NEW YORK — Users of New York City Transit subways and buses will pay no more than $33 in fares per week under a “fare capping” pilot program to begin March 1, 2022, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials announced Monday.
The New York Daily News reports that riders who use the new OMNY tap-and-pay system will get all rides free after they pay the basic $2.75 fare a dozen times between Monday and the following Sunday. Currently, riders must pay $33 up front for a week of unlimited rides.
The four-month pilot program is set to be approved Wednesday at an MTA board meeting.
It is one of several moves the MTA plans as it seeks to entice riders to return following the COVID-19 pandemic. For commuter rail users, the MTA plans to offer a flat $5 “City ticket” for trips on Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road that begin or end in New York City. There will also be a 10% discount on monthly tickets and a 20-trip ticket book that will represent a 20% savings over the cost of 20 individual peak-period fares. Like the NYC Transit program, those discounts will begin March 1 and are scheduled to run through June 30.
MTA seeks to “entice” riders to return, not “to entire riders”.
I don’t have a problem with deeply subsidized transit. I have been the benefit of such myself, countless times in my life: London, Montreal, Cleveland, Toronto, San Franscisco Bay, Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit and elsewhere. Ditto, commuter rail and ditto intercity rail, in America and in other countries. Where I do have a problem is when all this is underwritten with borrowed federal monies that will never be paid back. If New York (or wherever else) wants transit deeply discounted or pretty much free compared to the overall cost, then raise local taxes and pay for this cash in hand. If transit that costs a ten or a hundred dollars or more a ride (capital and operating) is given away for $2.75 or less, then pay for that out of a balanced budget.