MTA plans fare hike as MetroCard era comes to an end

Big changes are coming to New York City transit fares by the end of the year — including a likely price hike.

The MTA plans to raise the cost of subway and bus rides by 4% by the end of the year, which could increase the cost of the single ride to at least $3. At the same time, the agency plans to stop selling MetroCards, which are currently the only way riders can purchase 30-day unlimited passes.

The MTA has not yet set a date for the fare hike, but the agency’s annual budget anticipates it would go into effect in August, but MTA Chair Janno Lieber last week said it would not go into effect that month. An MTA board vote on a fare hike triggers a mandatory public comment period before the increase is implemented.

The MTA currently offers a version of a seven-day unlimited ride through OMNY by capping the amount any rider can spend on the tap-to-pay system in a given week at $34. It’s unclear if the weekly fare rate will increase with a fare hike, but there’s currently no 30-day unlimited option for OMNY users.

According to MTA spokesperson Eugene Resnick, existing unlimited MetroCards “leave $40 million on cards every year unspent and we do not think that unused trip value is a good business model.”

During a news conference last week, Lieber made no promises to keep the 30-day option once the MetroCard disappears. But he said the board is considering using OMNY to give other discounts, perks or bonuses to frequent riders.

“We have the ability to do things with fares that are really not easy to do now,” he said. “That’s one of the things we’re looking forward to.”

The prospect of expanding OMNY’s capabilities comes as the MTA reckons with glitches in the tap-to-pay system.

Just this month, riders across the city reported getting charged for multiple trips that they never took. MTA officials said this was just a computer error, but that they were taking the complaints seriously.

“Every single claim that has come to our attention of people saying ‘I was overcharged,’ in every case, they weren’t overcharged." Lieber said. "What it is, and it’s a legitimate concern that we are trying to get the contractors to correct, is a lag in billing registering through people’s credit cards and other payment media. The riders don’t deserve to have that surprise when a lot of charges show up on their accounts.”

The MTA inked a $573 million contract with Cubic in 2017 to develop and implement the OMNY system. The original plan called for the MetroCard to be phased out in 2023. But delays caused the contract's cost to exceed $700 million — moving back the MetroCard's full phase-out to the end of 2025. Transit officials attributed the delays to the pandemic.

This story was updated with additional comments from MTA Chair Janno Lieber.