As predicted,
fares are going up on Metro-North by 5% starting September 1st with
another 5% hike coming next July.
The final approval came days
ago from the MTA, parent of Metro-North, which rubber-stamped CDOT’s fare hike decision.
At least one MTA Board member called the
hikes “scary” and another exclaimed that he was “actually kind of offended”. But, hey… there is nobody on the MTA Board
representing Connecticut riders so they both voted to approve the hike as did
the entire MTA Board. After all, it’s
not their money.
Mind you, the MTA is also shortly
expected to approve a 4.4% fare hike for New York’s Metro-North riders as well
as a twenty-five cent increase for NYC subways and buses, so put that in your
pipe of moral indignation and smoke it.
As I explained a few weeks
ago, the Connecticut fare increase can be blamed on the
Governor and legislature, which knowingly under-cut the CDOT budget, pretty
much telling the agency to raise fares to make up the difference. After all, they seem to assume that everyone
who rides Metro-North along Connecticut’s “gold coast” is a millionaire.
But a 10% increase in one
year? On top of a 4.5% hike just two
years ago? That adds up to a compounded 15.2%
increase since 2023… way more than inflation.
Remember, Metro-North has a captive audience and can do anything it
wants.
And adding insult to injury, there are new ticket rules coming!
With more and more
commuters buying one-way e-tickets (57%) instead of
monthly passes (36%), those tickets will automatically be activated on
purchase, not when you get on the train and activate them yourself. Why?
Because, the railroad says, 55% of ticket holders don’t activate their
tickets until they see the conductor coming around.
But isn’t it the conductor’s
job to collect those fares and put seat checks on each row?
According to MTA Deputy Chief
Jessica Lazarus “Conductors are spending more than 20,000 hours each year
reminding customers to activate one-way mobile tickets”. Really?
How did they come up with that metric?
Requiring activation of the
ticket at time of purchase, she says, will “recapture those hours that can be
better put to use for fare collection and train safety operations.” Like enforcing the “no radios rule” and “no
feet on seats”?
If you’re doing a same-day
roundtrip you won’t buy two one-way tickets but, instead, a new Day Pass. Good for unlimited travel until 4 am the next
day, day-trippers using the pass will get a 10% fare discount compared to
buying two one-way peak tickets.
For hybrid commuters, after
buying ten one-way tickets within two weeks the eleventh will be free. For Seniors, the disabled and those on
Medicare the new reduced fare ticket will be valid at all times, even in the
morning peak.
Make no mistake: fare evasion is a serious problem for MTA
which estimates they lose $700 million each
year, most of it on buses ($315 M) and subways ($285 M). Metro-North losses are estimated at $44 M. Given that train fares are much more
expensive than bus and subway, that’s not a lot of commuter scofflaws; just 6% of
riders compared to 15% of subways riders and 37% of bus passengers.
Of course, bus riders can easily board by the rear door and subway riders can jump over turnstiles. On Metro-North we have conductors. It’s an hour-long ride from Stamford to GCT, plenty of time to look at everyone’s ticket… which they will still have to do even under the new rules.
But what about the Dashing Dan
running to make his train, grabbing a seat and then trying to buy an e-ticket
in a cellphone dead spot, nervously watching the conductor moving down the
aisle? No ticket to show? You’ll get whacked with a $2 surcharge.
Here are the optics: CT lawmakers short-change the CDOT budget,
basically saying “let the commuters pick up the tab”. Now MTA makes commuting less convenient with
new ticket rules.
We all end up paying more and
getting no improvement. The trains are
no faster or reliable… and maybe less attractive as a transportation choice.
