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A mountain of cash is coming to the MTA. (A fare hike is coming to riders.)
By
Clayton Guse
Published Nov 15, 2024
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Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
By
Clayton Guse
Published Nov 15, 2024
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This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.
Sign up to get the full version, which includes answers to reader questions, trivia, service changes and more, in your inbox every Thursday.
With the election in the rearview mirror, Gov. Kathy Hochul now seeks to deliver wheelbarrows of taxpayer cash to the MTA.
Hochul announced the end of her congestion pricing “pause” on Thursday. The MTA plans to begin collecting Manhattan’s first ever congestion toll from drivers in early January. The revenue will be used to cover $15 billion in transit repairs. Hochul also announced she “supports" the MTA’s pitch for more than $30 billion in new revenue to fix the agency’s rotten transit infrastructure. That money will have to come from new or increased taxes.
And that’s not even the whole pile. The MTA also has a fare hike scheduled for 2025 — and hearings on the increase could commence as early as next month.
That’s new fees for drivers, costlier bus and subway rides, and – pending legislative approval – potential new taxes on businesses and consumers. It all comes in the wake of a “throw the bums out” election where Democrats lost the House, Senate and the White House, with the cost of living being a big reason for Republicans’ clean sweep.
As Republicans bask in their victory, they’re signaling that they’re ready for a fight. A group of New York Republican congressmembers sent President-elect Donald Trump a letter on Tuesday, calling for him to nix Hochul’s congestion pricing plan once he takes office on Jan. 20.
So how can the MTA sell congestion pricing tolls, new taxes and a fare hike?
“I think you have to pitch it as a package for the MTA, and set out the reasons and the dire shape of transportation in the city,” said longtime New York public relations guru George Arzt. “If we want a modern, efficient transportation system, for now and for the future this is what we have to do.”
MTA officials say the fares are a routine part of the agency’s financial planning. Since the financial pits of 2009, the agency has set a standard for hiking the transit fare every two years by roughly 4%. It’s a move designed to avert the type of agita seen over the summer at NJ Transit, where officials raised fares by a jaw-dropping 15% after a nine-year freeze.
The last hike landed in August 2023, which bumped the subway and bus fare from $2.75 to $2.90. Next year’s could bring it up to an even $3. Hochul nixed a fare hike shortly after taking office in 2021, saying the move would lure more riders back during the pandemic.
She could have avoided this perfect political storm of MTA subsidies had she not paused congestion pricing in June. And she could have sought new taxes for the MTA’s construction plan through the state budget this past April.
But Arzt argued the governor had no choice: New fees or taxes are political poison in an election year.
Have a question about subway cars (or literally anything else NYC-transit related)? Use this form to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter!
But note that Curious Commuter questions are exclusive for On The Way newsletter subscribers. Sign up for free here.
Question from Geo in Manhattan
Why should drivers who don't use the MTA be forced to pay for it? Current expensive bridge and tunnel tolls ARE congestion pricing.
Answer
Many New Yorkers might forget that the MTA’s whole purpose is to use toll money from drivers to maintain the city’s mass transit systems. The agency was formed in 1968 with the goal of funneling money from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority to the subways and Long Island Rail Road — which were both severely underfunded at the time. Over the following 50 years, labor and construction costs boomed in the city — and decades of deferred maintenance once again left the subways in disrepair (remember 2017’s summer of hell?) Part of congestion pricing’s goal is to pay for $15 billion in mass transit repairs rather than collecting that money through taxes. The MTA’s analysis also says it will reduce Manhattan's notorious gridlock, which may speed up trips for motorists who can afford to pay the congestion toll.
The latest NYC area transit headlines
Listen here:
- “I have said from day one, I want Penn Station to be something we’re all proud of. And I said it can be beautiful. And he agreed”: Hochul said she had a long and “very productive” phone call with Trump after his win. Read more.
- A man who helped Daniel Penny restrain Jordan Neely on an uptown F train in May 2023 testified during Penny's trial this week that right after the incident, he lied to police when he said Neely first tried to hit him, saying he feared at the time he would be charged with murder. Read more.
- NYU has retracted a survey of MTA subway and bus workers wherein 89% of respondents claimed to have been assaulted or harassed on the job. Read more.
- Port Authority officials said they’re racing to land a federal loan that’s key to the reconstruction of the Midtown bus terminal, with hopes of securing the money before Trump takes office in January. Read more.
- State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a candidate for the 2025 Democratic mayoral nomination, is running on a promise to use the mayor’s “bully pulpit” to make city buses free. (Hell Gate)
- “Subway Therapy,” the wall of affirmative sticky notes in the passageway between the 14th Street stations on Sixth and Seventh avenues, is back following the presidential election. (The City)
Tagged
new york city
manhattan
Politics
transportation
On The Way
Clayton Guse
Clayton is the editor of the Transit and Infrastructure desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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