The Metropolitan Transit Authority will be cutting its planned 2015 and 2017 fare and toll hikes by almost half – to just four percent.

The MTA had previously said rates for subway and bus fares and for crossing the agency’s bridges and tunnels would increase by 7.5 percent.

The agency said Wednesday that it would offset the future revenue loss with aggressive cost-cutting measures.

The move comes after State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli conducted an audit of the agency that found a $1.9 billion surplus.

John Raskin of the Riders Alliance said the reduction “will help slow the constant drumbeat of fare hikes that have contributed to New York City’s affordability crisis.”

(AP)