The practice is already allowed in Britain, "although the surcharges have been mostly limited to taxi fares, student travel agencies and budget airlines".
Prior to this year's shortlist of 12 records being confirmed, bookies' favorites included Jamie xx's In Colour, an album of dance music for people who hate dancing, and Everything Everything's Get to Heaven, polished-to-irrelevance "quirky" indie fare for students too young and/or ignorant to have ever heard Enon and Q and Not U. Ahem.
Prior to this year's shortlist of 12 records being confirmed, bookies' favourites included Jamie xx's In Colour, an album of dance music for people who hate dancing, and Everything Everything's Get to Heaven, polished-to-irrelevance "quirky" indie fare for students too young and/or ignorant to have ever heard Enon and Q And Not U. Ahem.
Perhaps most controversially, the authority said it would eliminate reduced fares for students starting in September unless the city and state provided more funds.
But politicians and advocates who oppose the cuts — and particularly the planned elimination of discounted fares for students — refuse to accept them as a fait accompli.
The authority still plans to eliminate discounted fares for students, which would save $214 million, but that proposal was not considered by the board on Wednesday, adding to the sense that the worst was yet to come.
Her transport policy includes a promise to freeze fares on London transport until April 2014, as well as free travel to all Londoners actively seeking work and reduced fares for students and those on the minimum wage.
The plan to phase out free or discounted fares for students, which the authority said would eventually save $170 million annually, earned a particularly fierce reaction on Wednesday, even by the standards of an agency that is a traditional target of New Yorkers' complaints.
The authority's board unanimously approved the plan — which includes eliminating the W and Z subway lines, reducing service on dozens of bus routes, and phasing out free fares for students — to cope with a $400 million shortfall in state financing that emerged in the past two weeks.
There are different fares for students and concession-card holders and at off-peak times.
