Subway and Bus Fare Will Almost Definitely Go Up to $2.75 in March
We’ve been warning you for awhile now that subway fares would be increasing this year, but now it’s pretty much official: Prices will be increasing across the board, on everything from the base fare to unlimited cards. The New York Post reports: “MTA officials are backing the hiking of the MetroCard’s base fare and increasing the bonuses on pay-per-ride cards in March—rather than keeping the fare the same and ditching the bonuses,” as had been tentatively proposed. What does this mean for you? Well, expect base fares to go up a quarter a ride, to $2.75, and for the “weekly MetroCard [to] go up from $30 to $31… [and t]he monthly [to] be hiked from $112 to $116.50.”
There is some good news, though: Rather than the 5% bonus riders get if they put more than $5.50 on their cards at a time, they can now expect an 11% bonus. Not too shabby, we guess. We guess. It’s not just users of public transportation who will feel the squeeze, however: The MTA will also be raising toll prices for city bridges and tunnels, particularly for drivers who pay in cash. The Post explains, “the Verrazano would go up from $15 to $16 for cash drivers, and from $10.66 to $11.08 for those with E-ZPass.” So, you know, the lesson from all this appears to be that pretty soon we will never be able to afford to go anywhere unless we travel by foot or bike. Awesome. We don’t like leaving our apartment anyway, so this is as good an excuse as any to become a full-time hermit. 2015 is working out just fine for us. Juuuusssst fine.