A People’s History of MTA Fare Hikes
Though a few short years before the Times had endorsed a fare hike, by 1971 the paper was telling readers that “New Yorkers cannot accept the defeatism shown by [the governor and MTA chairman] on retention of the 30-cent subway and bus fare. Another jump in fares would be a municipal disaster…” In classic MTA fashion, the chairman at the time was talking about maybe a 45- or 50-cent fare before being all like “oh maybe only a nickel then, how about that, that’s not as bad as twenty cents is it?”