If you are one of those travelers who has been wanting to visit the city of New York and plan to either drive a vehicle or use public transportation, get ready to pay more next month, as tolls and fares to increase again August 2023 in New York has been officially confirmed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Tolls and Fares To Increase Again August 20 2023 in New York
Fares for public transportation — which includes subways, buses, and paratransit options — will increase by 15 cents or from $2.75 per ride to $2.90 per ride, which is a difference of greater than 5.45 percent.
The good news is that customers of the One Metro New York — which is more popularly known as OMNY — contactless fare payment system will continue to get the best weekly fare. Even better news is that changes to the fare capping pilot with OMNY will guarantee the best fare over a rolling seven-day period instead of the current fixed Monday through Sunday period. That means that customers will never pay more than the cost of a 7-Day Unlimited pass no matter what day of the week they begin tapping; and — as always — pre-paying is never required to take advantage of OMNY fare capping.
The current MetroCard system will eventually cease to exist and be completely replaced by the OMNY contactless fare payment system.
Increases in fares will also affect the:
- 7-Day Unlimited Ride pass will increase by one dollar from $33.00 to $34.00.
- 30-Day Unlimited Ride pass will increase by five dollars from $127.00 to $132.00.
- Monthly and weekly tickets on both the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuter train lines will increase by up to 4.5 percent across both railroads.
A Mid-Tier toll rate was implemented after midnight on Sunday, April 11, 2021. It is more expensive than the E-ZPass toll rate that is charged to customers of the E-ZPass New York Customer Service Center when their tag is properly mounted; but lower than the full toll charged to customers without a E-ZPass Tag or account by the New York Customer Service Center.
The new rates for passenger vehicles — with the new more expensive toll rates for other vehicles as well — are as follows:
| Crossing | E-ZPass New York Customer Service Center | Mid-Tier New York Customer Service Center | Tolls by Mail and E-ZPass Not Issued by New York Customer Service Center |
|---|---|---|---|
| Triborough Bridge, Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge; and Queens Midtown Tunnel and Brooklyn Battery Tunnel | $6.94 — increased $0.39 or greater than 5.95 percent from $6.55 | $9.11 — increased $0.75 or greater than 8.97 percent from $8.36 | $11.19 — increased $1.02 or almost 10.03 percent from $10.17 |
| Henry Hudson Bridge | $3.18 — increased $0.18 or six percent from $3.00 | $5.04 — increased $0.42 or greater than 9.09 percent from $4.62 | $8.25 — increased $0.75 or ten percent from $7.50 |
| Cross Bay Bridge and Marine Parkway Bridge | $2.60 — increased $0.15 or greater than 6.12 percent from $2.45 | $4.11 — increased $0.34 or almost 9.02 percent from $3.77 | $5.60 — increased $0.51 or almost 10.02 percent from $5.09 |
If you have not used the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge recently, know that vehicles once again pay tolls in both directions instead of only the westbound direction from Brooklyn — and the tolls are solely electronic.
Final Boarding Call
The last time an increase in tolls occurred for the bridges and tunnels in the city of New York was after midnight on Sunday, April 11, 2021; so this means that two years, four months, and nine days will have elapsed from that date through Sunday, August 20, 2023.
Moreover, the increase in the of the base subway and bus fare is the first one in almost eight years and five months — since Sunday, March 22, 2015, to be more precise.
Increases in tolls and fares means more money out of your pocket, so that is rarely popular — but looking on the bright side: at least the increases did not occur sooner and were not even more expensive…
…and at least congestion pricing has not yet arrived in the city of New York…
All photographs ©2015 and ©2022 by Brian Cohen.
