About 73 percent of all NICE riders use a MetroCard, with a quarter of them transferring to an MTA bus or train.
Come March, the MTA is hiking its fares from $2.25 to $2.50. And if Nassau County doesn't match that, the county will lose millions of dollars that the MTA will collect and keep from all those transfer riders.
The NICE fare hike would be implemented immediately, because officials say if they wait until the MTA hike takes place, theirs could not take effect until April.
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