Quote:
Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar
Hey, I was just wondering if anyone could tell me the logic behind MTA eliminating the FunPasses? I was in town last weekend and was dismayed to discover that they were no longer available (in addition to learning that the fares had now gone up to $2.25). After doing the math, the closest replacement to the FunPass came out to equal five trips for the price of four - I suppose MTA figures the average tourist isn't riding the subway much more than that in a day. Of course, it does leave NYC without a dedicated one-day pass for tourists and the like, simply a discount regular MetroCard. What was their reasoning?
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Actually, fares have been $2.25 for a while - the fare hikes only changed the bonus you got back from each purchase (from 10% down to 7%).
My guess of the reason behind demise of the FunPass: for most cities, the one day unlimited card partially serves as a tool to attract tourists who may otherwise be apprehensive about visiting the city because of the lack of decent transportation. The transit networks in those cities might not be the best, but at least the tourists don't need to spend a lot for their transportation needs, as they would for rental cars. In addition, the transit networks would most likely stop at the key tourist destinations.
The MTA probably believed that getting rid of the FunPass wasn't going to be a make-or-break issue for tourists, who won't need a financial transportation incentive as a reason to visit NYC. Tourists will always come to NYC no matter what. So the MTA figured that they might as well get as many people to use the regular-fare Metrocards instead, since they receive the greatest per-fare revenue from those. They also got rid of the 14-day Metrocard as well, probably because nobody actually bought those.
I can say for certain that they chased me away from buying monthly Metrocards, which have gone up from $89 to $104.