New Yorkers! I know how much it sucks that the MTA just hiked the Metrocard fare again, especially since it feels like they keep doing it every year. But before we accuse the MTA of screwing New York straphangers, please put it all in perspective.
The New York City Subway is the world’s largest rapid transit system in terms of number of stations and total route length, and also one of the world’s oldest, with sections of track dating back to 1885. It is also the only major rapid transit system in the world that operates entirely on a 24-hour schedule. The cost of repairing, upgrading and maintaining this infrastructure while also ensuring that everything runs efficiently and uninterrupted during morning and evening commutes is incredibly high, and the MTA consistently operates with budget deficits in the billions of dollars.
Despite all this, Metrocard fares are squarely in line with the cost of rapid transit in other large cities in the United States and Western Europe. Don’t believe it? Here is a comparison of several cities’ pay-per ride fares in USD, accurate as of March 26 2015:
While short trips in other cities (this can mean as few as 2 or 3 stations) are generally cheaper than a pay-per-ride Metrocard, a trip from one side of a city to the other can be considerably more expensive than a similar ride in New York.
The relative affordability of New York City’s subway system is much more pronounced when you compare the price of purchasing a full-system unlimited use pass for 30 days:
Again, New York City Transit is a 24-hour operation, and includes the bus and the subway, so your monthly pass is worth much more than a monthly pass in a city like Boston in terms of the amount of transportation available to you.
It’s also worth noting that the average American household spent $368 a month on gasoline in 2011, the last year for which I can find that figure. So if you rely solely on New York City Transit, your monthly transportation costs are roughly a third of what the average person in this country paid for gas that year.
I really do feel for folks that are barely scraping by and for whom this most recent increase is significant. Just a few years ago, the cost of a monthly pass literally rose from $81 to $103 overnight, and this was followed by a few minor service reductions that made people wonder where their money was going. But the MTA was operating at an even more pronounced loss back then, and these days the transit fare is only inching its way higher every year, currently at an annual rate that the MTA describes as 2%, which is roughly the average rate of inflation since 2007.
I also feel for folks who live off the 7, G and L trains, whose service has been continually disrupted over the past few years. To them it seems like they’re paying more every year for diminished service. But those are old and overtaxed lines that need to be rebuilt and modernized. This process has to happen some time; you can’t just keep running trains on tracks and through tunnels that need to be repaired. If you do, they will eventually fall apart, probably injuring and stranding people in the process, and then you’re going to have your service disrupted for months or years anyway. Most MTA service disruptions are scheduled so that the lines still run uninterrupted every weekday from the morning rush until after the evening rush, and the supplemental transit that they provide during construction hours is free of charge. Living with service disruptions sucks, and it’s inconvenient, but I can’t think of a better way to do things.
If you are upset by these fare hikes, there’s probably more productive things to do than be angry with the people who work for the MTA. Maybe we should advocate for higher subsidies for New York City Transit, which is probably the only way to actually bring down the price of a Metrocard. New York City generates a ton of wealth that gets distributed throughout the state and country; major state and federal investment in our transit system should be seen as a benefit to everyone. Or maybe we should focus on securing a living wage for everybody so that people are not so burdened by incremental fare hikes. Maybe a tax-free transportation stipend should be an entitlement for New York City residents? Or maybe we could address the real issue at the root of the cost-of-living crisis in our City: the unrelenting rise in the cost of housing. Whatever we do, we shouldn’t accuse the MTA of “screwing us.” Stuff that works and works well costs money, and the MTA already operates at a significant loss despite the subway being a relatively inexpensive way to get around. An incremental fare increase that is roughly the same rate as inflation is nothing to be angry at.
