The MTA announced a fare and toll proposal this morning (press release here) that would raise the price of monthly unlimited ride Metrocards by $5, from $76 to $81, and weekly cards from $24 to $25. The bonus for pay-per-ride cards would decrease to 15%, but the threshold for receiving bonuses would start at $7, instead of $10. The MTA has apparently abandoned off-peak discounts for transit riders, but kept in a new bi-weekly Metrocard, both ideas supported by transit advocates.

One egregious aspect of the proposal is the meager 15-cent increase in EZ Pass tolls ($4 tolls would increase to $4.15). Tri-State Campaign has called on the agency to implement variable tolls at its crossings and to increase tolls by more than transit fares. We found that a $6 peak toll and $5 off-peak toll could eliminate the need for a transit fare increase.

The MTA is heading in the other direction, however. Under the new plan, the price of monthly unlimited Metrocards will increase by 6.6% but EZ Pass tolls will increase by only 3.8%. This hardly seems fair, given that households with cars earn more on average than those that rely on transit.

At least the new proposal retains a larger increase for cash tolls, from $4.50 to $5. While this won’t have huge congestion reduction benefits (75% of trips on the MTA’s bridges and tunnels are paid with EZ Pass), the increased differential between cash and EZ Pass tolls may be a small step in the MTA’s glacially paced march towards high speed and cashless tolling.

The announcement was bad news for transit advocates and elected officials who have called for the fare hike decision to coincide with next year’s state budget negotiations and congestion pricing discussions. It is even worse news for transit riders who will end up paying a higher percentage increase than the supermajority of drivers.