MTA Approves LIRR Fare Hikes For March

Long Island Rail Road riders can expect a fare hike of approximately 4 percent starting in March.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority board voted Wednesday to raise fares across the board, impacting the LIRR, Metro-North, the New York City subway and bus fares as well as tolls at bridges and tunnels.

The new fares and tolls will take effect on March 19, 2017.

"The fare and toll increases are a necessary part of the MTA's financial plan," MTA Chairman and CEO Tom Prendergast said Wednesday. "The MTA recommended the increase after extensive valuable input from the public, from our staff and board members."

The last time LIRR riders saw ticket increases was in March 2015.

LIRR Fare Increases

Fares for commuter weekly and monthly passes will increase 3.75 percent or less, and monthly tickets by no more than $15.

For one-way fares, the math gets trickier because prices are calculated by distance traveled. Most one-way fares into New York City will have a range of increases no greater than 6.45 percent. Any increase greater than 6 percent would not be more than 50 cents per ride, the MTA says. Half fares, intermediates and other discounted tickets may have larger increase up to 10 percent.

The MTA launched a policy to enact biannual fare hikes in 2009 to keep increases "as small as reasonably possible," Prendergast said Wednesday. This year's fare hikes will represent the smallest increases since the policy was started in 2009.

An analysis by the MTA says the increase in fares on the Metro-North and LIRR will not have a disparate impact or disproportionate burden on minority or low- income riders.

NYC Subway and Bus Fare Changes

The board also bucked the expectation that base subway and bus fares could be raised to $3, instead opting to cut bonus fares and raise fares on unlimited weekly and monthly MetroCards.

• Base Fare: No change in $2.75 base fare for coin on bus and Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard.
• Single Ride Ticket: No change in $3 Single Ride ticket.
• Express Bus Fare: No change in $6.50 express bus fare.
• Bonus: Decrease the bonus on Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard from 11 percent to 5 percent; the threshold remains unchanged at $5.50.
• Unlimited Ride MetroCard: Increase the price of unlimited ride cards: 7-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard increases from $31 to $32; 30-Day and Calendar Monthly Unlimited Ride MetroCard increases from $116.50 to $121; 7-Day Express Bus Plus Unlimited Ride MetroCard increases from $57.25 to $59.50.

But despite the board members expressing favor for base fare hike, only one member of the board voted against Wednesday's fare increase package. Two years ago the MTA raised base subway and bus fares from $2.50 to $2.75.

Bridges and Tunnels

The fare increase is less than 25 cents for drivers using a New York Customer Service Center E-ZPass on 73 percent of all crossings.

Customers who pay with cash, Tolls by Mail or a non-NYCSC E-ZPass will see increases of 6.3 percent to 9.1 percent.

The price differential between cash and E-ZPass is to encourage E-ZPass use, which the MTA says is the least expensive way to collect and pay tolls.

Brendan Krisel contributed to this report.

Editor's Note: Patch inaccurately reported monthly train ticket costs, old and new, for Babylon. The information has been removed from this article. Patch regrets this error.

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