During these past few years, the price for MetroCards has kept rising and bus and train services had decreased. An Unlimited MetroCard was only $60 a few years ago, but now it costs $89. And soon, under a new plan, the new price for the “real” Unlimited would be up to $130 maybe. And the price for a 90-ride “unlimited” MetroCard would be $99.
It will be hard for families to afford a MetroCard that costs $130 monthly, which would mean $1560 a year, which is a lot of money to spend only on transportation. The 90-ride MetroCard doesn’t cost as much as the real unlimited ride one, but it only limits the person to use 3 rides per day, which is just like the student MetroCards.
The MTA has a huge budget gap that they need to fill, but they are rising the MetroCard prices too high. People rely on the MTA for transportation and they keep on rising the prices. I remember one day reading the back of a MetroCard and it gave me a fact that people used to pay $0.50 for a ride or even cheaper when they first built the transportation system.
It would be hard to people, especially families to afford to buy these monthly cards because if both parents take the train or bus to work, then it be $260 per month and that would only be for these MetroCards. Not all families could afford having a car and if the MTA keeps rising the fares, many families would prefer walking or taking a cab than take the subways or bus.
The MTA is not only increasing prices of MetroCards, but slashing many bus and train services. Everyday, millions of people take the subways, but if the MTA keeps taking away buses and trains, it will be hard for people to arrive to work on time or school on time.
I know the MTA is a good transportation system, but rising prices and slashing services is too much and it will hurt many families.