If the MTA continues to raise fares at the rate it has said it will in 2015 and 2017, we’ll be paying $168 for a monthly MetroCard and $3.75 per ride by 2023, according to a study by the Straphangers Campaign and the Independent Budget Office. That’s up from $112 and $2.50 respectively. Weekly MetroCards would go up to $45 from $30. The IBO calculated the potential fare increase based on “the pattern of 7.5 percent increases in fare revenues every two years that it has followed since the end of 2010,” compared with the projected rate of inflation. MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg called the increase “purely hypothetical” and said, “it’s way too early to say what kind of fare hikes we’re going to be talking about in two years.” But we do know they’re going to happen.
