The steep MetroCard discount — one of New York City’s few great bargains — might be going the way of the token, the head of the MTA said today.
“I think we need to have a really big public discussion about the fare price and the discounting that goes on,” Joseph Lhota said this morning at a Crain’s breakfast forum.
That discount shrinks the average cost of a $2.25 trip to $1.63, he said.
“Do we need a discount that deep?” Lhota said.
The agency is currently crunching the numbers to see if eliminating some or all of the discount would help lower the expected 7.5 percent fare increase, which will kick in next year.
However, Lhota cautioned that even if they completely eliminated the discount it would not bring in enough revenue to avoid fare hikes, which will be spread out among subways, commuter rails and bridge and tunnel tolls.
He said that they will release preliminary plans for the hikes in October, which will be followed by public hearings.
Any elimination to MetroCard discounts would likely be included in that plan, he said.
Lhota said the MTA has already cut $700 million from its operating budget, a figure that officials expect to climb to $1 billion in the coming years.