LIRR riders may pay 9.4 percent more in Jan.

Come January, Long Island Rail Road riders may be paying up to 9.4 percent more for their tickets and finding themselves in more of a hurry to use them, officials said Tuesday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans Wednesday to officially release details of wide-ranging proposed hikes it says are essential to solving a startling $900-million deficit and helping to balance its budget this year and next. The proposed increases - to take effect 17 months after the last hikes, which were in July 2009 - would hit the pockets of millions of railroad and subway riders and drivers paying tolls at MTA bridges and tunnels.

As part of the broad MTA-wide fare hike, LIRR tickets would rise 7.6 percent to 9.4 percent, depending upon the time and distance of a rider's trip. The railroad, in addition, is looking to significantly shorten the time span for which some tickets remain valid and to hike fees for onboard transactions.

One-way tickets, now valid for up to six months from the day of purchase, will be good for just seven days. Ten-trip tickets, now valid for a year, will have to be used within six months.

The LIRR also would round up the price of any transaction made onboard a train to the nearest dollar, eliminate or reduce discounts on Webtickets and Mail & Ride tickets to encourage use of ticket vending machines, and charge a fee of up to $15 for all refunds.

Hikes are 'hard to swallow'

William Henderson, executive director of the MTA's Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, said the proposed fare hikes and ticket shaftings are "hard to swallow," especially coming after deep service cuts on the LIRR and other transit agencies.

In September, the LIRR plans to cancel several trains, eliminate weekend service to West Hempstead and Greenport and shift from half-hourly to hourly off-peak service on the Port Washington line.

"I imagine that people won't be happy that, on top of losing half-hourly service, they'll be facing a fare increase," Henderson said.

The MTA will hold public hearings on its proposed fare increases in September and vote on the hikes in November. New fares would take effect in January.

"While the MTA's finances are grim, so too are those of LIRR commuters," said MTA board member Patrick Foye, of Sands Point. "Before substantial fare increases on the LIRR are approved, the MTA Board must assure itself that every other alternative has been thoroughly explored. I intend to do exactly that."

MTA eyes 7.5% fare boost

In all, the MTA is looking to increase fare revenue by 7.5 percent in 2011, including through hikes on most types of MetroCards. The MTA's so-called base fare will remain at $2.25. Tolls on the MTA's nine bridges and tunnels - last raised July 12, 2009 - also will climb.

The new fares are included in the MTA's preliminary budget for 2011, which will be released Wednesday. The agency plans to spend about $12 billion next year, an increase of about 2.4 percent over the current year.

The MTA also is to formally announce, as Newsday first reported last week, that it will no longer make up Nassau County's funding shortfalls to Long Island Bus. Transit and county officials have said LI Bus could shut down without the money, unless Nassau significantly increases its funding of the system, which it owns.

Combined with various internal efficiencies and a reduction of nearly 2,500 employees this year - including some through layoffs - the MTA is hoping to close out this year with a $12-million surplus, and finish 2011 with another $67-million surplus.

But MTA officials acknowledge that the optimistic projections hinge on many variables, including no further cuts in state aid, stabilization of a state payroll tax that helps fund the MTA and has so far underperformed, and the cooperation of the agency's labor force.

That last hurdle may prove the toughest to leap. The MTA plans to ask its unions for a two-year pay freeze unless they can come up with enough concessions, such as elimination of expensive work rules, to fund pay raises.

If the transit agency cannot realize the $525 million in annual savings it hopes for, MTA officials say the fare hikes may be even larger than currently planned.

"It's a realistic plan with those caveats," said Robert Foran, the MTA's chief financial officer. "We don't think we made unrealistic assumptions."