Last week I wrote about how NYC subway and bus fares could be going up.

The decision has been made and the fares will be going up however, the increase isn’t overly obvious until you look a little deeper at what’s going to change.

Currently a single swipe costs $2.75. This includes a free transfer from local bus to subway, subway to local bus or local bus to bus within a couple of hours of when you paid for the ride.

When you purchase or add at least $5.50 to your MetroCard, an 11% bonus is added to your card. This brings down the cost of a ride a decent amount.

Here is an overview of what will be changing this year, starting March 19.

The proposal to raise the cost of a ride to $3 didn’t go through but this doesn’t mean that your ride isn’t going to get pricier. Although the price of a swipe will remain $2.75. the bonus when you add $5.50 or more is going down quite a bit.

The bonus is being reduced to 5%. This means that even though the stated price of a swipe did not go up, the actual cost did when you include the decrease in the bonus.

Currently the cost of a swipe is $2.75 plus a 11% bonus making the fare (with bonus) $2.48. With the coming changes, the $2.75 fare with a 5% bonus will make the fare increase to $2.62.

What’s funny is that the news seems positive that the fares did not increase from $2.75 to $3. However, if it did the bonus would’ve rose to 16%. For those making a $6 purchase, the fares would come to $2.59. This is cheaper than the changes going into play in the future…

Other changes:

• 7-day pass= $32, up from $31
• 7-day express bus and unlimited subway pass= $59.50 up from $57.50
• Unlimited monthly pass will be raised to $121 up from $116.50

Considering I don’t take public buses and trains much anymore these changes won’t be so noticeable to me but for those who are frequent riders, these increase will be felt.

What do you think about the upcoming changes to the NYC subway and bus fares?

Find out more from Gothamist here.