Days after Gov. Kathy Hochul and Janno Lieber, the acting chair of the MTA, declared commuters are safe from fare hikes for at least six month, MTA officials on Wednesday said they still plan for riders to pay more for their rides next year.

"We are not surrendering the historic pattern of having small increases on a regular basis," said Lieber.

In the effort to balance its budgets from 2021 through 2025, the MTA scheduled fare and toll hikes for the middle of 2022, 2023 and 2025, despite the $10.5 billion in federal funds coming in.

What You Need To Know

  • The MTA is considering proposing fare and toll hikes in the second half of 2022, plus more increases in 2023 and 2025

  • The MTA is also relying on $10.5 billion in federal aid, meant to make up lost funds from declining ridership and tax revenue

  • The acting MTA chairman said it is possible that the 2022 fare hike would be gone for good

That money is designed to rescue the MTA from the pandemic's ridership and revenue deficit.

"We have customers that are choosing not to take our services and we wanted to drill down why are they're not coming back," Sarah Meyer, the MTA's chief customer officer, said.

If mass transit ultimately loses a projected 14% of its ridership from pre-pandemic levels, the MTA is at risk of missing out on a billion a year for good.

"We really still are structurally out of balance and we have to look at those hard, ugly choices of things that may have to be done," MTA Chief Financial Officer Bob Foran said.

The MTA surveyed more than a 100,000 so-called lapsed straphangers and most said  crime, personal security, cleanliness, and cost of the ride are all factors influencing their decision to return.

MTA officials are hopeful riders will come back because they delaying the fare hike for six months.

The MTA chairman said it is possible that commuters could be spared that fare hike next year. An increase in fares and tolls would bring in only $90 million — a sum that the MTA could raise elsewhere.

"There are a lot of things that could happen that might make it possible for us to forgo that fare increase," Lieber said.

Still, the big plans for the Second Avenue subway expansion to 125th street, more elevators in stations, and signal upgrades are moving forward now that federal money allows the MTA to borrow less to make those big ticket items a reality.