New LIRR Fares Now in Effect

UPDATE: See all the new fares here.

There's one thing all Long Islanders love to commiserate and complain about: how much it costs to ride the Long Island Rail Road. Well, the MTA board wants to make sure Long Islanders get to continue that tradition in earnest as the board approved fare hikes at a meeting Wednesday morning.

LIRR ticket price increases, beginning on April 21, will vary based on distance traveled and time of day. Weekly and monthly ticket price increases will be capped at 3.85 percent. The maximum increase for monthly and weekly tickets will be $15 and $5.75, respectively. Any monthly tickets that are $460 or more will not increase in price. One-way ticket prices will generally increase by 4 percent, with any increases of more than 6 percent capped at no more than 50 cents.

MetroCard bonuses will also disappear next month under the fare hike plan. The plan keeps the base subway and bus fare at $2.75 but will eliminate the 5 percent bonus for buying at least two rides.

The prices of unlimited MetroCards will rise next month from $32 to $33 for seven days and from $121 to $127 for 30 days.

The board approved the plan after taking an extra month to review alternatives to the fare and toll hikes it has imposed every two years since 2009. That delay cost the beleaguered MTA $30 million that it will never make up, Acting MTA Chairman Fernando Ferrer said.

The plan is "painful in some areas, but it is fair and it keeps us afloat financially, and that's an important thing," Ferrer said.

The increases were necessary to stave off financial trouble for the MTA, officials argued. The agency would face a $1.6 billion budget deficit if the planned hikes were not implemented this year and in 2021, Chief Financial Officer Robert Foran said in November.

The approval came after Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who controls the MTA — and Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a joint plan to boost the agency's revenue by more than $1.4 billion a year through congestion pricing and taxes on marijuana and internet sales.

With reporting by Noah Manskar