Straphangers reeling as NYC subway, bus fare hike takes effect: ‘We’re still struggling’
It’s not fare.
The price of a ride on city subways and buses jumped more than 5% to $2.90 on Sunday, slapping another strain on many of the system’s millions of daily riders.
The fare hike, which also includes the MTA’s Metro North and LIRR rail rides, came two weeks after tolls went up on the state agency’s bridges and tunnels.
On Sunday morning, commuters at the Jamaica Station transit hub in Queens said the increase was not insignificant.
“Yo, I’m about to lose it …Working every day and I still had to sell my car. Now I’m on buses, subway, probably going to get f—in’ stabbed and you raising that too? F—in’ bulls–t,” cursed auto mechanic Javier, S. 37, of Canarsie, Brooklyn.
Javier told The Post he was already tightening his belt when it came to transit expenses — and doesn’t appreciate the extra cost hit.
“February, I got my [auto] insurance and it went up like $2,500 and I said yo f— it; I’m selling,” he bemoaned.
“Got no raise, right? Can’t get a cheaper car, right? Even a free car, don’t matter, get $50 tickets in the mail for 36 mph, parking tickets $130 every time. Gas almost $4 and going up everyday.
“Last month I said f— it, I’ll get stabbed on the subway! Now I got to pay more to get stabbed?,” he said, referencing concerns about violent crime on the subway, which had been on a downswing amid an NYPD initiative to ramp up patrols in the system.
“My kids keep saying I gotta move to Georgia or something. I’m starting to think they’re right,” he joked.
Rosetta Allen, 54, a Bronx resident who works in a domestic violence shelter, had taken four buses to bring diapers to her daughter in Jamaica, Queens.
“They think the pandemics over but it’s not over for a lot of us, we’re still struggling,” she said of the increase.
“I’m still struggling to pay my rent and to pay for everything that’s going up and up and up,” she said.
“To get here this morning I got to transfer, four different buses, and they don’t give you more than one transfer. That adds up,” she continued. “I can’t afford any more increases. I’m struggling already. It’s ridiculous.”
Alisha Thomas, 25, a Queens resident who studies statistics at Baruch college, also lamented the fare hikes coming as the US comes under siege from rampant inflation.
“For me it’s like an extra two dollars a week or $100 a year maybe? But then I have to add in all the Uber and other stuff I take when I can’t take the subway, you know, it’s night or whatever. That’s all going up too,” she said.
“Yeah it hurts. It’s not good. But what are you going to do?,” Thomas asked as she headed to worship service in Manhattan.
The fare was last increased from $2.50 to $2.75 in 2015, and a planned increase was skipped during the COVID-19 pandemic as ridership plummeted, officials said.
Subway ridership climbed back to an average of 3.6 million people a day by June, according to the MTA — still a fraction of the 5.7 million who rode the train every day as recently as 2016, statistics show.
The subway fare has long outpaced inflation; in 1948 a ride cost a nickel — equivalent to $0.63 in today’s money.
