The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority late last month approved an $11 billion 2009 budget aimed at covering a $1.2 billion deficit, in part through cuts in service and increases in fares and tolls. Unless help comes through from the state legislature, the MTA Board of Directors cautioned that the base subway fare could rise 50 cents to $2.50 by next June. The MTA budget overall calls for a 23% increase in revenue from fares and tolls on the authority's rail and bus lines as well as numerous vehicular bridge and tunnel facilities. An MTA source told Railway Age that the MTA action avoids any significant scaling back of $15 billion worth of capital projects, many of them ongoing and one virtually completed.
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