Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Back to the Future

So the MTA is telling on itself. There is a sign in the subway that actually says that in 1986 the fare was a dollar. Wait let me not paraphrase, "Believe it or not. in 1986 the subway and bus fare was $1. That's $1.89 in 2008 dollars. Today 30 -day unlimited Ride Metrocard brings the fare down to $1.17. Believe it."

Now, excuse me for going to college but did you not just tell me that public transportation fare is rising faster than the rate of inflation or that the MTA is ripping everyone off for 11 cents? Sounds like both to me. And what's worse, you are trying to sell me a more expensive product at the sake of "hidden savings". Have you no shame? Add to that the fact the ad appears on the train, so the MTA is just advertising on itself (for free) and it's enough to make you want to vomit or at least throw a shoe. And the fare is going up in April? And they are cutting down service as well? What would our friends from 1986 say about that? I imagine something like, "Now where did I park that blasted DeLorean?". Believe it.

1 comment:

Timothy C said...

This is deliberate obfuscution by the MTA (as usual). There are 30.42 days on average a month (365/12), so assuming we all take one round trip a day, that means each ride costs $1.33. Not bad, right..., but still higher than the $1.17 quoted.

However, many people use the subway just for commuting to/from work. For those of us who do, there's an average of 21.72 work days a month. This averages to $1.86 a ride - so we're paying exactly the same today for continued poor service.

The odd part here is that this shows that the unlimited metro card is not the best option for riders who use it just for going to/from work each weekday. You're better off using the "buy 5 rides get 6 free cards, in which case you'll save yourself $173 a year versus the unlimited. But all this may be moot when the next set of fare increases comes into being