I wasn't aware of this, so I looked around a bit and found this [1] from a book about the history of the subway system. Apparently they kept trying to raise it

I wasn't aware of this, so I looked around a bit and found this [1] from a book about the history of the subway system. Apparently they kept trying to raise it, but were blocked by the mayor, Walker. Of course, the first order of business after it was taken over by the state was to raise the fare. Edit: found the underlying case, [2], but it looks less than straightforward -- the fixed fair was a condition of the leases on the right-of-way of the train system, and the attempt was made to charge a second fare when a certain boundary was crossed. [1] https://books.google.com/books?id=LYSVd43vZwQC&lpg=PR13&ots=xIlUM2l1N4&dq=irt%20fare&pg=PA98#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=LYSVd43vZwQC&lpg=PR13&ots=... [2] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/279/159/case.html https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/279/159/case.htm...