|
1975: N.Y. Fares Raised in Crisis
by Paul
Matus
Page
3
With the advent of
Metropolitan Transportation Authority stewardship of the NYCTA, things
seemed brighter. The "self-sustaining" principle, subverted in a dozen
large and small ways over the years, went out the window. The new
awareness of environment, energy, and the hope of greater Federal
financial involvement, helped create a better atmosphere for finally
holding the fare. Other cities stabilized their own fares, or even lowered
them.
When Abraham Beame campaigned for and
won the mayoralty in the fall of 1973, he made the usual pledge to "hold
the fare." But by the summer of 1975, New York was a city in crisis; no
matter how you analyze its problems, their causes, whose responsibility
the solutions, if any, might be—in simple terms, the City was broke. The
banks, followed by municipal bond investors would no longer honor the
City's credit—at any interest rate. City debt was falling due with no
money to cover it. New York was told that "things" had to be done to show
investors that the City was "fiscally responsible." "Something
"—something showy—had to be sacrificed: Easier said than done in a city
which is a herd of sacred cows.
Interestingly,
transit went to the block first—before the superagencies, before the
welfare bureaucracy, before the still-untouched free tuition system or the
free municipal highway bridges. And not only city transit-the MTA took the
opportunity to raise commuter railroad fares by 23% to 27% at the same
time, despite the fact that these fares were supposed to have been
guaranteed at least through the end of the year, and despite the fact that
the funding of these railroads has nothing to do with the City or its
immediate crisis.
So now the new fares are a
fact of life. But, as may have been expected, the "reason" for their
institution was never justified. The showy "sacrifice" had little impact,
except on the system's users, and New York's crisis is, if anything,
further from solution than ever.
Mild Disorders Greet Fare
Increase
Massive demonstrations threatened for the first working day of
the new fare (Sept. 2) materialized in only a few locations, led by
self-styled civic action groups who encouraged passengers to enter through
the exit gates without paying. In a few cases, demonstrators chained the
exit gates open. Transit police, who were alerted for trouble, broke up
the demonstrations, and New Yorkers settled down to paying the new fare
with their usual stoicism.
The Transit
Authority has begun chaining shut all but one exit gate during periods
when few passengers exit at many stations to discourage attempted ride
stealing. The one gate remaining open is not clearly marked, and some
passengers have had to try a few before finding the right one, a potential
safety hazard in the event that a station might have to be evacuated. The
outside of the swingtype exit gates are receiving decals which warn riders
to "Avoid Arrest, Pay Your Fare."
Four Fares in Four Days
Collectors of transit trivia now have a good question to stump
future generations, courtesy of New York's MTA: When did New York charge
four different subway fares in as many consecutive
days?
The answer, of course, is the long
weekend starting Saturday, August 30, into the morning of Tuesday,
September 2, 1975.
The MTA's weekend half-fare
program and its decision to raise fares on Labor Day, September 1,
produced the financial curiosity.
On Saturday nights, Sundays,
and designated holidays, transit riders get a round trip for a one-way fare,
so the effective one way fares for the weekend were:
|
Aug 30
|
35c
|
Aug 31
|
17½c
|
Sept 1
|
25c
|
Sept 2
|
50c
|
which were respectively, the old full fare,
half the old fare, half the new fare, and the new full fare.
Continued on page
4
The Third Rail and The Third Rail
logo are trademarks of The Composing Stack Inc.
|
