Connecticut rail commuters are set to face up to two 5% fare hikes, pending MTA approval of a Connecticut Department of Transportation proposal on Wednesday.
The fare increase, which comes after a month of public hearings, would apply only to Metro-North trips that start or end at a Connecticut station.
The first 5% hike would go into effect on Sept. 1. An optional second 5% fare increase would go into effect in July 2026. The proposal is expected to raise $1.4 million in 2025, and $16 million in 2026.
ConnDOT shares operations of the New Haven Line with the MTA’s Metro-North Railroad, and is responsible for most of the railroad’s assets on its side of the state border.
Connecticut stations are owned, operated and maintained by ConnDOT, and the state agency is also responsible for track upgrades and maintenance. Sixty-five percent of the rail cars operating on the New Haven line belong to Connecticut, identifiable by the red stripe running down their side. The remainder, owned by New York, are blue.
The MTA board’s joint Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road committee voted Monday to move the fare hike’s approval on to Wednesday’s full-board meeting. But committee member Neal Zuckerman balked at the proposal Monday.
“I’m actually kind of offended by a 10% increase,” Zuckerman said. “This board has worked diligently — since I’ve been on this board 11 years — to have predictable and low … increases.
“I am bothered by this, and by the perception that it is OK to raise [fares on] people, in the middle of an inflationary period, [by] double digit increases,” he said.
Committee member Midori Valdivia agreed.
Committee member Gerard Bringmann argued against fighting the hike.
“How do we tell them, ‘we don’t want you to have a fare increase in September,’ and then we’re going to turn around and have a 4% increase on our commuter rail towards the end of the year?” Bringmann asked, referencing the MTA’s planned 2025 fare hike for commuter rail, subway, bus and tolls.
“They’re not setting [a] 2026 [increase] in stone,” he added.
The full board is expected to vote on the fare hike Wednesday.
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