MTA approves higher LIRR fares; monthly ticket changes start in May

Long Island Rail Road commuters will pay more to ride the rail as the cost of MTA fares and tolls are rising again.

The MTA raised rates on its railroads, subways, buses and tolled crossings during a board meeting Wednesday in Manhattan.

Under the plan, the maximum increase on weekly and monthly LIRR tickets will be 3.85 percent, with dollar increases capped at $15 for monthly tickets and $5.75 on weekly tickets. Commuters already paying $460 or more for their monthly ticket will not see any increase — a last-minute tweak to the railroad’s fare increase proposal. All other LIRR tickets will experience an average fare increase of 4 percent.

The base MetroCard fare will remain at $2.75, but the MTA will eliminate its purchasing bonus that adds additional cash to riders who put at least $5.50 on their cards. Monthly MetroCard costs will rise from $121 to $127, while weekly rates will increase from $32 to $33.

The fare increases will take effect April 21, with new tolls beginning March 31. The increases for LIRR commuters would be reflected in the May monthly ticket.

The changes come as the MTA struggles to provide reliable service across its agencies and grapples with financial crises as it faces a potential $1 billion budget gap by 2022. Another fare and toll hike is expected in 2021.

Mark Epstein, chair of the LIRR Commuter Council, criticized the MTA and LIRR on the timing.

“Today’s vote by the MTA Board to raise fares on the Long Island Rail Road caps off what has been a very bad week for LIRR riders," Epstein said in a release. "The week began with the revelation that equipment purchased for implementation of Positive Train Control, a federally mandated safety system, has malfunctioned and is being recalled, leaving some doubt as to whether the railroad will be able to meet the implementation guidelines.

"Next was the release of the proposal to reconfigure the MTA by the governor and mayor, which includes the formation of a Regional Transit Committee that would have subway and driving community appointments — but no mention of any representation for LIRR or Metro-North riders. Two crashes this week resulting in fatalities caused significant commuting delays. What a week, and it’s only Wednesday.”

Acting MTA chairman Fernando Ferrer said the authority’s money problems were the “most daunting challenges [the MTA has] faced in decades,” and added the hikes would stave off potentially devastating service cuts. He also championed ongoing cost-cutting efforts within the MTA’s agencies.

“We know that the increases alone won’t solve our problems, and just as urgent, we must fundamentally reform the MTA,” Ferrer said.

The hikes, part of planned biennial increases instituted a decade ago, represent a 4 percent increase during the next two years for the MTA, which expects to bring in an additional $336 million annually from this year's increases. But the authority lost out on $27 million in revenue when the MTA’s board, hesitant to raise rates yet again, postponed a January vote by a month to explore alternatives to the increases.

While it may be less politically challenging for the MTA to simply tweak its obscure MetroCard purchasing bonus, some advocates disagreed with the authority’s approach to eliminate that discount.

“Since the majority of commuters — the regular riders of the system — take advantage of the discounts, their fares will effectively go up, while the occasional user, and tourist, will not feel any pain,” said Lisa Daglian, the executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.

While Daglian acknowledged the fare hikes were necessary, she said the LIRR could better accommodate railroad riders transferring to the city's subways. She appreciated the MTA's decision to institute a fare cap of $460 a month, down from the authority's initial proposal for a cap at $500 a month.

"While that's more palatable than a $500-a-month cap, we still believe that there should be a discount for commuters who purchase a monthly pass and MetroCard combination," she said.

Many board members and advocates agreed the vote was necessary to keep service afloat, but the board’s Andrew Saul said it was unfair to burden riders while the MTA’s operations are such a mess.

“This place is not managed efficiently, and the riders are getting screwed,” Saul said.

The vote came a day after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who effectively controls the MTA, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio teamed to support a 10-point plan to fund and reorganize the authority.

Board member Veronica Vanterpool on Wednesday said she supported some elements of the plan. But she stressed her proposal to align the budget of the MTA, a state authority, to the state’s budget cycle. Currently, the MTA board must approve the MTA’s budget before it knows how the state’s budget will impact its bottom line.

Vanterpool also called for greater diversity among the MTA’s board, which is mostly populated by older white men, traditionally with expertise in areas such as real estate, construction and law, and for more transparency around budgeting.

“We cannot be a two-face agency, which is what we used to say back in the Bronx,” said Vanterpool, who conceded that the increases were needed to keep service running.

Neal Zuckerman, another board member, sounded the alarm about the MTA’s “frightening deficits” forecast for the next few years and said the rate-of-inflation increases were a healthy and necessary measure for the agency.

“A 2-percent increase is not a hike,” he said.