By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — Straphangers were reeling Thursday morning as they awoke to higher fares, including monthly passes topping $100 a pop.
"It sucks," said Brooklyn resident Brian Dunn, 23, who works and goes to school in Morningside Heights, as he filled up his MetroCard at Penn Station Thursday morning.
Under the new fare system, approved in October, 30-day unlimited passes have jumped from $89 to $104. Single-ride MetroCards are up from $2.25 to $2.50, and seven-day cards now cost $29 instead of $27. Purchasing a new MetroCard instead of refilling an existing card also now costs $1.
Long Island resident Amar Persaud, 49, who commutes everyday to his office in Midtown, said that with the economy still sluggish, he wished the agency would give riders a break.
"It's crazy. I didn't get a raise at my job so it's just more money I have to shell out. And it's not like it's better service," he said. "Especially with the weather and all the problems they've been having, I think it's definitely not warranted at all."
He said he’s considering driving more often.
"This is definitely not a way to encourage the use of mass transit," he said.
Margarita Tamarit, 37, also from Long Island, said that her daily commute to Midtown now costs her nearly $400 a month.
"You can't afford to get to work sometimes," she said.
Some savvy straphangers hurried Wednesday night to take last-minute advantage of the cheaper fares.
Upper East Sider John Bernard, 63, rushed off a train at the East 86th Street station to buy a final $89 monthly pass for the coming month.
"I was on the train at 34th Street and I realized it was [almost] the 30th. I looked at my watch and realized I had a few minutes," he said, after hurriedly stuffing bills into a MetroCard vending machine before the clock struck midnight.
But the benefits will be short-lived. Cheaper fare cards of all lengths must be activated by Jan. 10 to qualify for older fares.
Bernard said it was frustrating to see prices rise despite more crowded trains.
"I know things go up, but we’re paying more for less service," Bernard complained. Still, he said, "It’s still cheaper than taking a cab home."
Many said they'd been caught off-guard, unaware of the impending hikes until they went to refill.
"It feels like they just hit us," said Bronx resident Pedro Diaz, 35, a janitor who works in Midtown.
Diaz said he was "disappointed" by the hike.
"I always keep a big bucket of change at my house. I'll have to get a bigger bucket for change now," he joked after loading up at Penn station at the higher rate.
"I had no idea," agreed Michael Redmond, 30, who lives in Nassau County and works Downtown.
"It's just an extra 10 bucks you have to shell out every month for terrible service," he said.
The hike will net the cash-strapped MTA an anticipated 7.5 percent in additional revenue.
