"All these service changes, it's getting worse. I think the MTA is a corrupt organization," rider David Robinson said.
Glena Raymore Subway Rider 16:50
"I mean it's enough already. Why we gonna pay more? It's hard on us. We are in a recession, arent' we?" rider Glena Raymore said.
The base fare will go up 25 cents to $2.50 a ride.
A monthly MetroCard is set to increase by 8 dollars, going from $104 to $112.
A weekly MetroCard goes up to 30 dollars.
"I mean everybody's got to share in the burden of fare increases," MTA Board Member Allen Cappelli said.
Cappelli says the fire hike are designed to hit tourists more than the rest of us by keeping discounts whenever we put money on a MetroCard, so instead of eliminating those discounts they will be only be cut down from 7 to 5 percent on every purchase.
"We essentially wanted to come up with the balance or at least I didn't want to come up with a balance that doesn't penalize the most faithful users of the system too much," he said.
A fare hike's been planned for years now. Some subway riders said even with the hike, it's still a pretty good deal.
"I get good service out of it. It gets me to work on time and that's the cost of doing business," Adam Backstrom said.
Between now and the 19th, the MTA may tweak the fare hike a little bit more, but sources say it's basically a done deal. The fare hike takes effect in March.
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ONLINE: mta.info
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