The governing board of the MTA is proposing to raise the subway and bus fares from $2.75 to $2.90 by Labor Day.

The local MTA proposed the idea of raising their fare for a single pass by 5%. Weekly passes will raise by 3%, monthly passes and express passes would raise by 4%. The current prices are $2.75 for one fare, $33 for a weekly pass, and $127 for a monthly pass. The express bus pass is $6.75.

New prices for a pass would be $2.90 for a single ride, $34 for a 7-day pass, $132 for a monthly pass and $7 for an express bus ride. These prices would accumulate for a person who uses services to travel to school, home, work or anywhere else in NYC.

Kaja Mihajlova, a 10th grader who uses the subway to travel often says she pays for the single pass everytime she goes out. She says that raising the price on MTA fares is “horrible and should not happen, I feel like they’re robbing me.” 

When not using the MTA transit system, Mihajlova’s dad drives her around and often using an E-Z Pass. Mihajlova will also be affected as the prices for the E-Z Pass will increase by 6 to 10% and for toll by mail prices will increase by 7%. 

Algebra 2 teacher, Ms. Trezza is not happy either since she always pays the bus fare to get to work using the new OMNY service which costs $2.75 per ride. 

OMNY is a new method used to pay for the fare. With OMNY you can tap your debit or credit card, smart device, or an OMNY card onto the OMNY reader located on the subway turnstiles or the bus doors. This is an alternative for the traditional Metrocard. 

There is a fare cap, where the user can take 12 rides using OMNY on the same device so they can ride free for the rest of the week starting Monday. Even with these benefits, a fare price raise can cause issues as the new constant cost can add up to a large amount.

“I always pay the fare when I go on the bus but I barely see anyone else pay for it,” says Trezza. She addressed the ongoing issue that she claims is fare evasion. The rising prices on fares can be caused by many reasons such as fare evasion. Fare evasion even made the MTA try out a new prototype of the typical turnstiles recently in order to avoid it. According to the transit authority,  the MTA lost about $690 million in 2022 through fare evasion.

MTA fare increases may cause more people to be wary in their choice of transportation. This year, inflation was seen more than ever within food, clothes and now, possibly commuter rail fares will cost more.