NYC subway fare hike may be on agenda

NYC subway fare hike may be on agenda

	Published : Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:16 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg raised hackles recently when he said of subway overcrowding, 'So you stand next to people. Get real, this is New York.'

Straphangers who thought they deserved sympathy for being packed in like sardines could get more bad news this week if transit officials vote to consider the system's first fare increase since 2003.

A Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman would not comment on published reports that the authority, which runs the nation's largest mass-transit system, will start the fare hike process Wednesday when it takes up its four-year financial plan.

If an increase is on the agenda there won't be a decision until December. But the MTA board could decide Wednesday to schedule a series of public hearings on fare hikes for New York City Transit and the two commuter lines it runs, the Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road.

The bus and subway fare has been set at $2 since it was raised from $1.50 in 2003, but the average actual fare is about $1.30 thanks to cut-rate monthly and weekly passes.

That fare can take you anywhere the subway goes -- a bargain compared to other transit systems such as Washington, D.C.'s, which charge more for longer trips.

What the $2 fare can't buy is a seat at rush hour -- or, sometimes, room to breathe.

According to the MTA's own body count, several lines are so crowded during the morning rush that each rider has a space less than about 19 inches by 19 inches to stand on.

It was in response to a reporter's question about those numbers that Bloomberg, a billionaire who rides the subway to City Hall, made his 'this is New York' retort.

Any debate on fare hikes will take place in the context of Bloomberg's push to increase transit ridership by charging cars $8 to enter the busiest parts of Manhattan during work hours.

State lawmakers who must approve the so-called congestion pricing plan have agreed to consider it, but the plan faces big hurdles before it can be enacted. New York stands to collect up to $500 million in federal funds for transit improvements if the plan is approved.

'It's as if a well-off uncle has come by and given us half a billion dollars,' said Gene Russianoff, whose Straphangers Campaign released its annual state of the subways report card on Monday. (Several lines got failing grades.)

Russianoff said he would 'grudgingly' accept a fare increase if it is coupled with the improvements to the system that those federal funds would buy.

With 8.6 million trips on an average weekday, New York's bus and subway system dwarfs any other transit program in the United States.

And it is more crowded. Peter Derrick, a subway historian and author of 'Tunneling to the Future: The Story of the Great Subway Expansion That Saved New York,' said he has ridden every transit system in the country and 'there's no comparison.'

But Tokyo and London are more crowded.

'Japan is the worst,' Derrick said. 'In Japan it's common on almost all the lines to be crushed up against another person's body during rush hour.'