MTA Postpones Metro-North Fare Increase

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — Those few Hudson Valley residents who are still riding the Metro-North Railroad won't have to pay more at least for the near future, because the board of the Metropolitan Transit Authority announced Monday it would postpone this week's planned fare increase.

However, tolls could still go up soon.

Ridership on Metro-North is still down 80 percent, barely better than when the commuter culture collapsed at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in March and ridership dropped 91 percent. According to the MTA, just 52,500 people rode the railroad Thursday in the Hudson Valley and Connecticut.

"As part of our biennial review of fare and toll policy, the MTA conducted the unprecedented level of outreach this year required, holding eight public hearings and receiving 2,100 public comments," MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick Foye said in the announcement. "What we heard at these hearings was that people are suffering and cannot shoulder even a modest fare increase right now."

Foye said the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked economic havoc on the transit system, devastating the MTA's ridership and revenues and bringing them to levels far worse than the Great Depression.

The pandemic has also hit people of color and low-income communities hardest, "many of whom are the very same essential workers that have been on the frontlines of this crisis and who are also most dependent on mass transit," Foye said.

Foy said the MTA also has hope for $8 billion in additional pandemic relief and continued federal investment in mass transit in 2021 and beyond once the Biden administration gets underway.

"For these reasons, the MTA has decided to postpone the planned fare increase for several months," Foye said. "We plan to move forward with a discussion and vote on recommended toll changes in February."