MTA approves financial plan, which includes fare hike, discusses congestion pricing at final board meeting of 2024

NEW YORK — During its final board meeting of the year, the MTA on Wednesday approved a financial plan that includes a fare hike.

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The plan assumes as much as a 4% hike that could begin in August. The fare increase, itself, still must be subjected to a public comment period and then voted on by the MTA board.

The decision to potentially raise fares again comes just weeks before congestion pricing takes effect in early January. Fares were increased 15 cents this past summer to $2.90.

In addition to the financial plan, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber gave a presentation on several notable topics, including congestion pricing, how subway ridership has reached its highest rate since the pandemic, and the Queens Bus Network redesign.

Congestion pricing just weeks away

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The $9 congestion pricing toll, charging drivers who enter Manhattan below 60th Street, begins at midnight on Jan. 5. Officials say drivers will only be charged one time during a calendar day and are urging drivers to use E-ZPass. They recommend making sure that your E-ZPass account is up to date and in good standing, adding drivers who don’t have E-ZPass will be charged 50% more if they opt into the “Toll by mail” option.

The money raised from congestion pricing is expected to bring in $15 billion for, among others, subway modernization, accessibility upgrades and the expansion of the Second Avenue Subway.

“The $15 billion that was in the 2020-2024 capital program included specifically funding those signal projects. It doesn’t fund, right now, [the Interborough Express, or IBX], although it does create additional momentum,” Lieber said.

The MTA board was expected to vote on purchasing 435 new subway cars, 80 of which are expected to have the open gangway design that lets riders walk through the entire train. They could be delivered by 2027 and would replace the cars with wood paneling and orange seats on the A, C, N, Q, W and Staten Island Railway.

The new cars would be paid for by congestion pricing. 

contributed to this report.