The MTA started its pilot program for a "City Ticket" this weekend, allowing LIRR and MetroNorth riders traveling within NYC limits to pay a base fare of just $2.50 one way. The new ticket will save riders up to 50% on intra-city trips. For the six months trial period, only weekend riders will be able to purchase the tickets.

Depending on rider response from the 6 month trial, MTA officials said they will consider extending the program. Hopefully they will. City Ticket could give neighborhoods of the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn without good subway access a faster option to get to Manhattan. In some cases, this could mean paying $1 more a day for trips that, compared to the subway or bus-subway combinations, take half the time.

The MTA has said for some time that LIRR capacity constraints that a full-time City Ticket program would aggravate will be reduced disappear after the East Side Access service to Grand Central begins in 2012. The new service will allow the agency to run more LIRR trains, thus accommodating an increase in ridership from stations in Queens that are now poorly served. 

MTR back issues:

Go to index of all Mobilizing the Region back issues