MTA expected to boost base subway, bus fare to $2.90; LIRR, Metro-North, bridge and tunnel costs also rising

You’ll need three more nickels to ride New York City’s subways and buses under a fare hike the MTA is expected to approve on Wednesday.

The new base fare of $2.90, expected to take effect Aug. 20, will be 15 cents higher than the current $2.75.

The subway fare was a nickel from 1904 until 1948, when it doubled to a dime.

The MTA can’t attribute the increase over the last 75 years to inflation. Five cents in January 1948 had the same buying power as 64 cents today, says a government calculator that tracks the Consumer Price Index.

If passed, seven-day MetroCards will go up by a dollar, to $34, and monthly passes will increase by $5, to $132. (Shutterstock)

But the MTA can say that at least, it staved off an increase in the base bus and subway fare for seven years — partly by a decision in 2019 to curb the free rides given to MetroCard users.

Under the fare hike plan, seven-day MetroCards will go up by a dollar, to $34, and monthly passes will increase by $5, to $132.

Express bus tickets will go up by 25 cents, or about 4%, to $7. Seven-day express bus passes will climb $2, or about 3%, to $64.

Tolls at the MTA’s bridges and tunnels are also expected to rise, as are fares on the Long Island Rail Road and the Metro-North Railroad

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The increase comes after a $65 million infusion of cash from the state, meant to ward off an even larger toll increase.

In May, MTA Finance Committee Chairman Neal Zuckerman called the pending hike “a reasonable increase given inflation.”

Transit officials expect the hike will raise fare revenue by 4% system-wide. Fares and tolls are slated to fund about 40% of the agency’s 2023 operating budget.

Transit advocates — and many MTA board members — had expressed hope that the Adams administration would ease the sting of a fare increase by backing a plan to expand eligibility for the city’s Fair Fares program.

The program offers half-off fares to New Yorkers living at the federal poverty line — $30,000 annual income for a family of four.

But an effort to double the eligibility threshold faltered during city budget negotiations, resulting in only a moderate expansion of the program.

MTA officials have regularly framed the fare hike as a return the agency to regular increases. To that end, the MTA’s preliminary 2024 budget, released this week, plans for additional 4% fare hikes in 2025 and 2027.