MTA plans fare hike as it OKs $1.27B train car purchase weeks before new congestion toll: ‘Keep the grift alive’

Well that’s un-fare.

The MTA approved a $1.27 billion order of 435 new subway cars – including 80 “open-gangway” cars — then OK’d a plan to raise subway and bus fares to $3-per-swipe.

“This is a good deal,” MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said Wednesday of the price hike, after approving a budget plan that aniticipates a 4% hike in fares from the current $2.90 by the second half 2025.

The MTA board will have to formally approve the hike next year.

“We are way cheaper than other major world cities,” Lieber said.

But the coming hikes met immediate blowback from critics who scoffed at the big spending alongside the fare hikes and a new Manhattan business district congestion toll that goes into effect on Jan. 5.

“Chicago Transit bought 400 cars for $632 million pre-pandemic,” City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) said.

“So given the MTA’s incompetence factor, multiplied by their waste, abuse and mismanagement, paying only double a few years later seems par for the course,” he added. “Congestion pricing was supposed to solve all these capital shortfalls, but apparently now it won’t.”

The MTA’s current five-year plan assumed a “routine” increase of 4% in 2025 and another 4% increase in 2027 – which would mean fares of about $3.14. Meanwhile, commuters on wheels are slated to shell out $9 at the start of the congestion toll, which will balloon to $15 in the coming years. 

“The Miserable Transit Authority strikes again, raiding the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers with their congestion tax scam and endless fare and toll hikes,” City Council Member Robert Holden (D-Queens) said in a statement.

“Instead of rooting out waste and abuse within their bloated system, they keep the grift alive at our expense,” he added. “This is pathetic, unacceptable, and New Yorkers deserve better.”

But it remains to be seen if the latest crunch on commuters will have any ramifications at the ballot box for Gov. Kathy Hochul or other pols with elections a ways off, insiders said.

“Unfortunately, the fiscal needs of the MTA and the political fortunes of mayors and governors rarely converge favorably,” Democratic political strategist Jake Dilemani told The Post. 

“Straphangers and commuters will feel the pinch even more,” Dilemani added, “but it is unlikely this fare increase will have political repercussions when voters head to the polls for mayor next year and governor in two years.”

The $1.27 billion package is set to add 355 modern R211 subway cars, plus 80 more that include the European-style “open-gangway” trains.

Those doorless trains are set to debut in 2027 and eventually replace all R44 trains on the Staten Island Railway and the orange-and-yellow R46 subway cars used for decades on the A, C, N, Q, R and W lines. The new trains will also usher in the replacement of the R68s used on the B, D, N and W lines.

G-line straphangers will be able to ride the accordion cars starting early next year, the MTA said.

At least two five-car open gangway trains from the C line will be transferred to the G line in the first quarter of 2025 – and riders will have about a one-in-give chance of riding an open gangway car.

“This latest order is putting the MTA closer towards its goal of fully modernizing the system,” MTA Chief of Rolling Stock Tim Mulligan said in a statement. “The R211s are state of the art and less prone to breakdowns, which means smoother trips for tens of thousands of New Yorkers and more reliable service for decades to come.”

The accordion-style R211 trains, first rolled out on the C line earlier this year, are part of a “generational upgrade to our subway fleet,” NYCT President Demetrius Crichlow said at a Monday MTA board meeting, “and the benefits are huge.”

Crichlow acknowledged the wider doors, better signage, displays and the presence of video cameras “to improve the safety of our customers and employees.”

Transit crime is down more than 6% citywide, according to NYPD data – and Lieber blamed current subway crime on people that are “mentally ill.”

“Where we continue to have challenges is because of what’s going on with criminal justice,” Lieber said. “The fact that someone thinks they can just get on a train and stab someone.”