NYCTIP. The ten-trip train ticket might well be one of the MTA "best kept secrets." It's useful if you take commuter trains every now and then because it offers a discount but doesn't force you to use the ticket within a week or a month. (You have a whole year...and you can even use the ticket to pay for more than one rider at a time.) By ordering it online, you can get extra savings too.

For the time being, the ten-trip is also covered by the 2005 MTA Bonus Program, which will be discussed on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show this morning.

Those who take commuter trains (even for an occasional trip) have it relatively easy when figuring out how to get deals through the MTA Bonus Program. Here are the relevant deals:

Buy a December monthly ticket, get a free off-peak ten-trip tricket (or its equivalent)

Buy a weekly ticket between November 20 and December 27, get a free off-peak round-trip ticket.

Buy a ten-trip between November 20 and December 27 [Crap! The date's 12/31, not 12/27], get a free off-peak round-trip ticket

But wait — there's more!

You can always save more money by ordering tickets online. Except for monthly tickets.

Meanwhile, the $2 million ad campaign for the MTA Bonus Program is still shockingly Santa-centric. Even the music on the TV spot — "Deck the Halls" — has a Christmas slant, while the diversity of New York holiday celebrations is unrepresented. I mean, what about Festivus?

And now the Transit Workers Union claims that "the MTA is offering holiday fare discounts as a way of winning points with the riding public in advance of contract talks," according to NY1. Here's a jarring quote from the NY1 site:

"We do not believe that the MTA is bargaining in good faith when you have a $1.04 billion surplus and you are demanding that we give up our unborn," said TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint. "They're basically trying to throw the money out of the window as quickly as possible before December 15."

Ho ho ho!

Photo: David Marc Fischer