![]() ![]() As The Daily News noted, messenger services and frequent train riders were going to realize savings of hundreds of dollars annually. Today, riders can swipe in at the same station only once every 18 minutes but can enter the system at other points before the time limit is up. Eventually, Transit agreed to reduce the limitations to their current form. The unlimited ride cards could be used once system-wide every 18 minutes, and many straphangers taking short trips found themselves waiting for time to expire. The only down side riders could find was the original 18-minute use restriction. Once I’ve made that $17 investment up front, I see it as a free situation, rather than a $5 cab ride minus the dollar-and-a-half public transportation.” ”Maybe it would stop me from taking so many cabs,” one rider said at the time. Even though plans for the one-day card were delayed, lines at the token booths snaked through stations, and New Yorkers were eager to take advantage of the potential savings. When the unlimited cards debuted on July 4, 1998, they were an immediate hit. Empower the person who takes the subway and the person who takes the bus by giving them the broadest possible range of options as to how they want to choose to use the mass transit system.” ”The goal here,” Pataki said said to The Times, ”was very simply to empower the rider. Original MTA estimates projected 100 million more riders per year, an increase of six percent. While the 30-day cards then - and still do today - require someone to ride at least 47 times to be a better deal than the pay-per-ride discounts, the new passes were designed to encourage use. The agency was expected to lose over $230 million on the per-ride discounts, and as riders today pay an inflation-adjusted fare that is 36 cents lower than the average fare was in 1996, this loss is still haunting the MTA today. In a twist of history, the MTA could afford to offer these discount cards because of a surplus of tax revenue in 1997. Original plans called for a $63 30-day card, a $17 seven-day card and a $4 one-day fun pass. ![]() George Pataki first announced unlimited ride cards in early December 1997. Yet, 12 years ago, few were aware of the looming debut of these cards that have changed the way we ride. In January, over 50 percent of all non-student trips came from one of the four unlimited ride offerings. Today, the Unlimited MetroCard is a way of life. Straphangers, in fact, get better deals on their weekly or monthly cards if they ride more frequently, and the MTA earns less per ride. IND often calls out, and while 15 years ago, that ride would have cost $1.25, today, the Unlimited MetroCard urges you to take that one- or two-stop ride. to 40th St., the one-stop ride along the Sixth Ave. Meanwhile, throughout the city, people running errands opt to duck underground as well. People who would otherwise walk or bike to their myriad destinations head underground for a ride free from rain. On rainy days, the trains are damp and more crowded than usual. The MTA should stand clear of the doors, not hold service from the straphangers who need it most.When Tuesday dawned another cold, windy and rainy day, I pondered how New Yorkers ride the subway in those ugly conditions. Affordable Metro-North and LIRR service would give New Yorkers more time with their family and friends, cut congestion on our streets and in our subways, and expand economic accessibility for hundreds of thousands of people. ![]() “New Yorkers shouldn’t be held hostage by the MTA to get home to their families, and they shouldn’t have to spend extra hours crammed on the subway and bus to make ends meet. While commuter rail tracks carve through the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, working New Yorkers are stuck behind an unacceptable pay wall, forced to pay an exorbitant amount or spend extra hours stuck on overcrowded subways and buses,” Stringer said. “New York City’s transit system is in crisis. The plan would improve job access, extend the reach of the transit system and relieve overcrowding on the subway at the fraction of the cost of new station and tunnel construction, Stringer said. The idea is part of his proposal to relieve overcrowding on subways and buses and cut the commute for many customers.Īccording to the proposal, commute times for customers would be cut in half, expanding mass transit in 31 neighborhoods in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn, offering another option to about 1.4 million residents. NEW YORK – New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer called on the MTA to lower the fare for using the LIRR and Metro-North within the five boroughs to the cost of a MetroCard swipe - $2.75 - and allow free transfers between rails, subways and buses. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. ![]()
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