In a recent public service announcement, hip-hop superstar Cardi B, the new voice of the MTA’s subway system, discourages subway surfing. “Ride safe, keep it cute, and keep it moving,” she says. In another, she informs people, “These trains don’t move without you, so make sure you pay that fare and keep it real.”
However, even Cardi B’s influence may not be enough to soften the blow of the MTA’s upcoming fare increase, set to take effect in January 2026. Subway and local bus fares will rise to $3 starting then. Reduced fares for seniors and people with disabilities will be $1.50, while express bus fares will increase to $7.25. Families with children might benefit from an expanded Family Fare program, which now makes children aged 5 to 17 eligible to ride for $1 when accompanied by a fare-paying adult, up from the previous age limit of 11, but riders in communities like the Highbridge area of the Bronx, where Cardi grew up, will likely struggle to afford these increases.
While the MTA insists the increase is necessary to sustain the transit system and is below the rate of inflation, critics argue that this ongoing cycle of fare hikes criminalizes poverty and disproportionately affects the city’s working class, many of whom are Black and Latino New Yorkers. MTA fares generally increase every two years. There was a temporary freeze during the COVID-19 pandemic, but then the fare rose from $2.75 to $2.90 in August 2023 and is planned to increase by 4% in January 2026.
The Community Service Society of New York (CSS) has noted that over 60% of low-income residents in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island rely on public transportation to commute to work.
“We share the concern about the impact [the fare increase] will have on low-income New Yorkers,” Jeff Maclin, CSS vice president, told the AmNews. “We know from our latest survey that one in five low-income New Yorkers experiences transit affordability hardships, and 30% of low-income New Yorkers report often being unable to afford the bus and subway fare. Black and Latino New Yorkers, and low-income working mothers, report higher-than-average transit affordability hardships.”
Early word of plans for a fare hike led to organizing by Pan Africanist human rights organization the December 12th Movement, which created TheFareAin’tFair campaign. Their organizing started after the September 15, 2024, NYPD shooting of Derrell Mickles at Brownsville, Brooklyn’s Sutter Avenue L train station.
The officers fired nine shots at Mickles, 37, after he allegedly jumped the turnstile to evade the fare and, once confronted, turned toward the cops while carrying a knife. Mickles ended up critically injured, but when the officers shot at him, they also hit two innocent bystanders: a 26-year-old passenger and 49-year-old Gregory Delpeche, who was shot in the head and had to have part of his skull removed to relieve brain swelling.
The need to enforce fare payments should not cause working-class people to suffer, activists said. Coalition member Christian Joseph said the fight against the MTA fare increase is a fight against the larger cost-of-living crisis in the city. “The campaign is really an attempt to deal with the issue of the affordability crisis in the city, as it presents in transit,” Joseph said.
The MTA held in-person and virtual meetings in late August to allow the public to comment on its proposed fare increase. Adam Schmidt, a senior research associate for transportation with the Citizens Budget Commission, testified in support, arguing that the increased revenue is “critically important” because the MTA faces an operating budget gap of $345 million in 2027 and a structural gap that “exceeds $800 million a year.”
Other people recommended alternative ways to raise funds to cover the agency’s shortfalls, such as expanding fare-capping and publicizing reduced fare programs that could aid impoverished New Yorkers.
At the August 19 public hearing about the increase, a member of the Fare Ain’t Fair Coalition identified as Freeman X told the MTA board that many people oppose the fare hike because one in five New Yorkers will struggle to afford it, and one in four currently lives in poverty — with less than $1,000 in savings. Over the course of a year, after paying for daily round trips, these same people end up paying more than $2,000 to use public transportation.
“We could talk about the fact that y’all have not improved Access-A-Ride,” the coalition member said, “and month after month, elderly people in our community come up in here to the monthly board meetings … and they call it ‘Stress-A-Ride’ because people are missing their doctor’s appointments; their lives are being thrown into havoc. What have you improved? We could talk about that, but enough people have already mentioned it, and I guarantee you even more people will continue to talk about it because the majority of working-class and poor people in this city are against you trying to raise the fare.”
The coalition member added that fighting fare evasion with strict enforcement has wreaked havoc on the Black community: “Y’all are on track with working with the NYPD to outpace all the past years of fare evasion just in the first quarter this year, by targeting Black people,” she said. “Over 3,000 arrests have been made in the first quarter for fare evasion. Over 2,000 of them have been Black people. I know y’all aren’t going to sit up here and say that Black people hop the turnstile more than white people, because that’s not true. Y’all know that’s not true. You’re targeting Black people; you’re targeting poor people.”
While the MTA board has approved the fare hike, Fare Ain’t Fair’s Joseph stressed that the fight is not over, noting that the increase will not be implemented until January 2026.
“Historically, governors have had the ability to intervene with regard to the fare hike because the MTA is not just subject to the MTA board — it’s also subject to the governor,” Joseph said. He said the campaign will continue targeting the governor’s office. “The call for the campaign is to continue to resist this fare hike.”
Back in August, Governor Kathy Hochul blamed the MTA fare hike on President Trump’s tariffs, saying that they “make aluminum and steel more expensive — thank you, Donald Trump.” When the Amsterdam News reached out to the governor to ask if she had any plans to issue an official statement regarding the fare hike, Sean Butler, her deputy communications director, told us that “Keeping transit affordable, safe, and accessible to all is a top priority for the governor. It is critical that the MTA remains fiscally secure while also keeping fares as affordable as possible.”