Commuter Incentives Appear At Last

<B> Commuter Incentives Appear At Last</B>

By Robert Selwitz

As of Jan. 1, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ridership incentives package was completed. Now bus and subway riders can choose to pay $1.50 per individual fare--complete with a gratis bus/bus, bus/subway, subway/bus transfer--or they can pay $4 for a new pass that allows unlimited rides between midnight of the day of purchase and 3 a.m. the following day.

These passes are not available at subway stations, but may be obtained from some 3,700 retail locations, including supermarkets, drug stores, banks and mom-and-pop stores throughout the five boroughs.

In addition, riders can acquire a pass--from subway booths or other sources--which is good for any amount of rides during seven consecutive days for $17, or unlimited access during 30 consecutive days for $63. The most popular option, an untimed card offering 11 rides for the price of ten ($15), will continue to be sold.

These discounts have radically boosted ridership during the past two years, according to the MTA's deputy executive director Christopher Boylan. "We have a half million more daily rides taken on the system now--around 6 million--compared with a year ago. And we've added over $50 million in services in the last six to nine months. Furthermore, we are committed to spending another $150 million in improvements in the future. Riders will be particularly aware of the more frequent cleaning of buses, subway cars and stations."

Boylan said that major expansion projects on the MTA's docket currently include a 53rd Street connector that, by August, 2001, will link the E and F lines with the Sixth Avenue subway in Manhattan.

Hope also springs eternal for completion of the three-decade-delayed Second Avenue subway. Boylan said the MTA has requested $55 million in additional federal funds to complete design work on the badly needed route. However, "to finally finish it would take $5 to $8 billion. If that could somehow be found, we'd love to do it," he said.