NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transit Authority delayed voting on a potential fare increase at its Thursday meeting, pushing back a decision for at least a month.
A unanimous vote (with one absention and one board member absent) tabled the vote until the Feb. 27 meeting.
“We need to change the thinking and the culture of how we operate the system to make sure there’s clear performance metrics tied to any potential future fare increase,” said board member Lawrence Schwartz, chair of the board’s finance committee. The delay will allow a month to devise alternatives.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken a hard line against any fare increase, which MTA sources estimate could generate an additional $30 million per month. As an example of the hike under consideration, a subway fare could possibly increase up to 10 percent over the current base fare of $2.75.
Also at the meeting:
— A vote had been expected on the new construction plan for the subway L train, which avoids the lengthy closure which had long been planned. [See “New York MTA emergency board meeting will result in Jan. 24 vote on the L Train’s future,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 17.] Acting MTA Chairman Fernando Ferrer, however, said there was no need for a new vote if the cost of the new plan was equal two or less than the amount that had been originally been budgeted. Full details of the new plan, which replaces a full closer of the 10-mie line between Manhattan and Brooklyn with partial closures, should be finalized soon.
— The board approved a $32 million contract with HNTB New York Engineering and Architecture for preliminary engineering and design of the Penn Station Access Program. The contract must also be approved by Amtrak’s board of directors.
The program will lead to four new stations in the East Bronx along the line from Penn Station to New Rochelle, N.Y., used for Amtrak Northeast Regional and Acela Trains [see “Bronx to get four new Metro-North stations,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 24, 2019] and additional tracks for the Hell Gate Bridge Line right-of-way. Actual track placement yet to be decided upon. Funding is available through the MTA’s 2015-2019 Capital Plan. Expected opening for this will be after 2022. When the vote was cast, it was mentioned the idea came from then-Bronx Borough President Ferrer thirty years ago.
— During the post-meeting press briefing, Trains News Wire asked Ferrer specifically about the timing and train slot availability of at Penn Station and Grand Central. With the East Side Access program bringing Long Island Rail Road trains into a new station under Grand Central Terminal, there may be additional capacity at both New York City stations. Ferrer said the East Side Access service must be fully operational before Penn Station Access service begins, and that once the East Side Access trains are running, “we will know how many slots we will have at Penn Station in a relatively short period of time.
“Those underutilized slots at Grand Central for trains that go into GCT are available for us to use for Metro-North, and others, perhaps. We’re not selfish.”
MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan indicated plans for the new East Bronx Service were being formulated, and that the new Penn Station trains would mean additional service, not diversion of current trains from Grand Central.
Upon the introduction of the Metro Card systemwide, The one fare, one city program was implemented. The Staten Island Ferry became a free service after a very brief fare of 25 cents which was payable on the staten Island side. and here on Staten Island you can ride for free on the Staten Island Railroad in certain parts However you pay an exit fare at St George just to get out of the terminal unless you get off at Stapleton and walk all the way down Bay Street to the ferry. Now you can ride from Tottenville in Staten Island which is the southernmost point in New York State all the way up the Bronx-Westchester border on one fare. The StatenIsland Ferry serves as a connector to make that possible and still is the number one link for us Staten Islanders to the rest of the city. By the way I remember those good old days of the double fare on the Rockaway line. You paid an extra fare (one of those tokens to exit at either Rockaway Park or Far Rockaway and coming in to go back to the city you put two tokens in. The big boondoggle that they told the residents of the Rockaways for years was that the double fare was being used to finance the building of the viaduct across Jamaica Bay when the city took over the line from the Long Island Railroad and also for much needed repairs and upkeep.
That wnr on for over 40 years. Only after a few fare increases did that finally stop and the citizens of the Rockaways much like the citizens of Staten Island werefinally accepted into the fold of New Yorkers and not some lower class or Third World people although nothing has changed that much Staten Island still lags far behind with public transit (only borough that don’t have a subway line and never will) and depends on a network of buses to move people One lone rail line that connects to the ferry and nothing else. The Rockaways are treated pretty much the same way. A shuttle train connecting Rockaway Park with Broad Channel in non rush hour and although there is direct service on the A train from Washington Hts toFar Rockaway which is the longest subway line in New York, it still leaves much to be desired with good service. The same could be said also for the Rockaway’s bus network also
The main thing going on here is a Cuomo power play redux, the first being the L train re-vote. The guv also unloaded on the MTA management (read bureaucracy), an easy target. Hard to know if this will harm or help Byford’s efforts.
I remember the 15 cent subway tokens in the 1960’s (a second token required for Far Rockaway). Now my computer keyboard doesn’t even have a “cent” key like my typewriter did.
Oh yes the Staten Island ferry was a nickel.
The subway wasn’t very pretty in those days but it was safe and reliable and went everywhere..
This all goes back to that nobody is willing to admit it costs money to run these systems and that nobody thinks they should be the ones paying for it. I know that sounds simplistic but I don’t think that I am wrong.