What’s fair on fares: The subways need steady fare increases, no matter the political calendar

That the MTA is going to have to raise fares isn’t a surprise, as periodic inflation-linked hikes should be accepted as routine. Our gripe is that it should have been this year and not next year. Actually, the fare bump was set for 2021, following the regular every-other-year pattern that has worked well for everyone since Dick Ravitch, tapped to help fix the authority’s finances, put it in place in 2008.

But COVID understandably pushed the 2021 hike into 2022 and last fall, Gov. Hochul, facing an election year, mistakenly ruled out 2022. Now the bill is coming due and instead of seeking the typical 4% increase at the turnstile, it will be 5.5%.

The rationale for no 2021 fare hike (beside the political calendar) was that there was billions in COVID aid money from Congress sloshing around and a lower price would entice more people to return to transit. But the federal cash is drying up and very unlikely to be replenished, and the return of riders is also going very slowly, well under the rosy projections of the MTA’s consultants.

Today, a few months shy of three years since COVID arrived on our shores, ridership is at 61% of pre-COVID numbers and less than 50% during rush hour. The virus isn’t keeping riders away, the new world of work from home is, the same phenomenon that’s keeping too many Manhattan storefronts boarded up and many empty floors in office towers.

The lack of riders is also what is contributing in a major way to the MTA’s worsening finances, as state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli warns. Twenty-five cents extra for a trip isn’t what’s dissuading passengers.

When we objected to the delay in fare hikes last year, we noted that while Hochul was quite pleased to share the good news with straphangers, we doubted that she would be the one telling people when future hikes were needed. Turns out that we were right on that too, as the governor is far away from the MTA’s grim budget pronouncements.