MTA head Joe Lhota announcing his "bittersweet"'decision to resign as chairman. (Photo by Jim O'Grady)
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(UPDATED) Rare is the meeting of NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority at which the secondary story is a vote to raise fares and tolls. But that was the case on Wednesday morning, when NY MTA chairman Joe Lhota presided over the system’s fourth price hike in four years before announcing he’d step down on Dec. 31 to “explore” a run for mayor.
First, the money side: starting March 1, New Yorkers will pay $30 for a weekly Metrocard and $112 for a monthly card. The base fare for buses and subways will rise to $2.50. Riders of commuter rail lines will see an eight to nine percent increase in ticket prices. Tolls on the authority’s bridges and tunnels will go up by about the same amount.
The board voted to adopt Lhota’s fare and toll hike recommendations. The board also approved Fernando Ferrer, former Bronx Borough President, as the new MTA vice chairman.
According to the MTA, its 2013 budget “assumes small cash balances available at the end of 2013 and 2014 that will be rolled forward to help address deficits in the following years that will nevertheless total more than $330 million by 2016.”
Or, as the agency’s official twitter account tweeted: “Our Board has adopted a 2013 budget that is fragile and faces risks, but is balanced.”