The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has passed a 2009 budget that ultimately would raise subway and bus fares in New York while cutting service.

The agency says it needs to raise fare and toll revenues by 23 percent in order to plug a budget gap worsened by the global financial crisis.

Board members say they still hope for a bailout from Albany or Washington that might allow them to avoid the increases.

Details of the hikes and cuts won’t be finalized until early next year.

Under the worst-case scenario, a single bus or subway ride could rise to $2.50, and a monthly pass could cost around $100. Service cuts would include the elimination of bus and subway lines in areas where there is either low ridership or a duplication of services.

Under the plan, there would also be 2,700 layoffs, shortened or reduced service and another 10 to 18 standees in each car and bus.

The Long Island Railroad would cancel and combine trains.

Metro North would have fewer cars, squeezing more people in each one and decreasing service.

Also, there would be fewer cash lines at the MTA’s nine bridges and tunnels and everyone would face two fare hikes, a 23 percent fare hike in June 2009 and a 5 percent fare hike 18 months later:

“Either we get help from Governor Paterson and state legislators or we’re going to get it in the neck,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.

The weakening economy is one of the factors being blamed for the cash crunch at the MTA.

Less than a week after a commission recommended new ways to raise revenue, its author went before lawmakers on Wednesday of last week.

The pain train is coming into the station, but how bad the medicine is depends on the tolerance lawmakers have for new taxes and tolls.

On December 10, a legislative subcommittee heard from Richard Ravitch, head of the commission recommending, among other things, new bridge tolls, a payroll tax and fare increases to help fund the MTA’s operating and capital budgets, which are billions of dollars in the red.

MTA bosses are guardedly optimistic lawmakers will pass some kind of relief when they reconvene in January, saying Albany understands the magnitude of what’s at stake.

The MTA says it will pass a budget that includes service cuts and fare increases this month, but will amend it if it gets more funding from lawmakers in Albany.

(Source: WCBSTV)