New York, the most expensive city to live in the US and one of the most expensive in the world, has become even more onerous this month, with the coincidence of increases in rates for electricity, gas, subways, trains, buses and some bridges and tunnelsalso affecting residents of neighboring areas.
It is possible that all these increases affect other consumption items, such as food, recreation and the Internet. Con Edison was the first to raise its gas prices (8.4%) and electricity (9.1%), effective as soon as the month began, last Tuesday August 1st. and then it will come other increases in January 2024 and 2025. This company supplies electricity to most of the county Westchester and in all of New York City, except for a small part of Queens. It also provides gas in Manhattan and the Bronx.
At the beginning of 2022, New Yorkers were already surprised with increases of up to 300% in electric bills, between the historical inflation national.
He second hit to the pocket of this inflationary month comes tomorrow Sunday, when tolls on MTA bridges and tunnels will increase in a higher percentage than expected for the Metro and bus fares that will be activated in two weeks, on August 20.
Tolls on MTA bridges and tunnels last went up in 2021. Starting tomorrow there will be different percentage increases. For example, tolls E-ZPass for cars at what the MTA calls “major junctions” –the Verrazzano, Whitestone, Throgs Neck and RFK/Triborough bridges and the Queens Midtown and Hugh L. Carey Brooklyn Battery tunnels– will increase approximately 6%, up to $6.94 dollars. Mail-in tolls, issued to drivers without an E-ZPass, will go up 10%, up to $11.19.
E-ZPass MTA discounts only apply to drivers whose tags are registered in New York. Motorists in New Jersey or any of the 17 other states that use the E-ZPass system will pay the higher toll-by-mail ratebut they have the possibility of changing their registration to NY to pay less, he explained Daily News.
Bus and subway users will pay 5.5% more when NYC Transit increase your base fare from $2.75 to $2.90, in the third blow to the New York pocket this month. Since 2015, public transportation in NYC has not increased in price.
It is expected that, in addition, the rates of Metro-North and LIRR up around 4.3%stressed ABC News. The increase in the price of the basic trip will also impact all the MetroCard modalities and express buses ($7).
The increase may seem ironic to many users given the unsafety that lives in Metro and buses, and the increase in homelessness and evaders or stowaways. In this scenario, the MTA faces losses of $690 million dollars annually by the increasing number of users who access without paying. Ironically very few use the “Fair Fares” program offered by the city for low-income New Yorkers to pay half the fare in public transport, the same that applies to students, people with disabilities and people over 65 years of age. Check eligibility for the program herein multiple languages.
Gasoline prices have also risen, Though not much: The median value of a regular gallon in NYC was $3,912 on Thursday, just over two cents above the state median of $3,888, he noted. The New York Times.
