What you need to know about the Long Island Rail Road fare hike this month

Starting on or around Aug. 20, Long Island Rail Road riders can expect a modest uptick — roughly 4.3 percent — in the price of their weekly and monthly tickets. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, LIRR’s parent company, voted unanimously last month to raise the base fares for LIRR train trips for the first time in four years.

The price increase translates to a few extra cents for each ticket. A one-way ticket from Long Beach to Manhattan, for example, will cost an extra 50 cents, increasing from $14 to $14.50 during peak hours, and will rise from $10.25 to $10.75 off-peak.

While the agency customarily raises fares every two years, MTA officials held off on an anticipated round of increases in 2021 for fear that it would drive commuters away from mass transit at a time when winning them back was key. It also still had billions of dollars in federal relief from the coronavirus pandemic it could tap into.

The situation came to a head earlier this year, when the agency said it faced a projected budget gap of $2.5 billion by 2025. It has since managed to stave off financial ruin and avoid making drastic service cuts after Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers promised to add millions of dollars in funding.

“We have to face the harsh reality of MTA’s fiscal cliff,” Hochul noted in her 2024 executive budget address. “A problem that was created by almost the complete cessation of ridership during the pandemic — except for emergency workers, first responders, and health care workers.”

Critics and observers, however, argue that the MTA’s financial problems reach back decades, and are attributable to questionable budgetary practices that have left expenses outpacing revenue.

The current fare bump — and those still on the way — are part of a roughly $1.3 billion bailout deal struck between the transit giant and Albany, MTA chair and chief executive Janno Lieber said.

On balance, with the LIRR dropping some fare prices by 10 percent last year, “the fares are still (comparatively) lower than they used to be, even though everything else in life has gone up,” Lieber said.

For riders like Sebastian Munoz of Queens, who waited at the Valley Stream station last Saturday, the uptick in

fares is not expected to make a noticeable dent in his wallet.

“I use the train every day to head to Jamaica to work at my construction job,” Munoz said, “but it’s something I’ve always done, and I don’t think it’ll impact me at the moment.”

“I’d rather it not be this way, but it’s not going to make me not take the train,” said Gina Donovan of Lynbrook, whose work allows her to use mass transit sparingly. “I only use the train on the weekend here and there. I work in the city once a week, but I drive, so it’s not a problem for me.”

For others, however, like Valley Stream resident Maritza Flores, who commutes twice a week to see her mother at a nursing home in the city, 50 cents a ride can add up.

“My mother gets depressed if I don’t visit her, but these price raises make it harder for me to see her,” Flores said. “I don’t agree with the price rise. If anything, they should lower the fare price a bit.”

Commuter Rozan Wimmer and her husband, Donovan, who were waiting at the Valley Stream station to take an excursion to Central Park, said they worried that the periodic fare hikes would only further undercut people’s purchasing power and hurt their savings as inflation persists.

“Fare bumps make a big difference, because everybody must change their budgets,” Rozan said. “The salaries haven’t really come up to the rates of inflation. If they’re going to give us a hike, then they need to provide better service.”

“We keep getting squeezed, whether it’s taxes or insurance or raising rates like this,” Donovan added. “For people who have regular jobs, who aren’t tied to union contracts, who can’t get raises, it’s hard. It’s unfortunate.”

For more information on the fare increases, go to tinyurl.com/MTARateHike2023.