Passenger Trains > NYC: Fares go up, capital budget shortfall increases

The NY Daily News reports on the problems with New York City's / downstate transportation network.  Although the bus and subway fares went up today, there's still a $15 billion shortfall in the already planned construction list. 

One elephant in the room is the suggestion to put tolls on the currently free East River bridges. It has been an article of faith for more than a century that these bridges will not be tolled. It costs $15 to take the Verazzano bridge from Brooklyn to Staten Island. But the annual investment in fixing these 100+ year old bridges is taking its own toll.

The other elephant is the new Tappan Zee Bridge. Although the construction is underway with temporary financing, there's no agreement as to how to fund it. Truck interests are rebelling at the prospect of $120 one way tolls (similar to the current GW Bridge), and Rockland political leaders fainted at the idea of a  $20 toll, up from the current $6 (Lincoln Tunnel is $15).  Everyone agrees these improvements are needed, and agrees somebody else should pay for them.


>>The 2015-2019 capital program drafted by MTA planners envisions $32 billion in system maintenance, repairs and upgrades, everything from new
subway rails to new transit routes, like the Second Ave. subway. It’s
critically important, and not just because more than 8 million riders a
day need the transit system to be reliable and safe. The plan also
creates and sustains jobs throughout the state, all the way up to
Plattsburg, near the Canadian border, where there are more moose than
people, and more people than jobs.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/no-specific-plan-close-15-billion-mta-budget-gap-article-1.2158801

(I was impressed with the comment that MTA chief  Tom Prendergast was driven back to the city from Albany. When there's a perfectly good, and pretty fast railroad that would get him back to the office even faster. His agency pays to maintain the southern 60+ miles of the line.)

I have absolutely no idea how people in NY can afford to do daily travels by car in the region.  The bridge tolls are ridiculous......

Most of us do not, and have no desire to do so. 

The Port Authority police have stepped up their intercepts of truckers who try to "trick the system" by using fake plates etc on their rigs.  At some times of the day officers are waiting for people to blow through the tolls. Run the electronic tolls, and let the camera show a phony plate.  The PA tolls are on the honor system, the MTA tolls in NYC use gates with the electronic tolls.

With tolls over a hundred bucks in some / many cases, truckers will sometimes tape phony plates over their real license plates. Doesn't happen as often with the large-company owned trucks since most have EZ pass and the electronic manifest transponders.

You can lose the truck and cargo to impound, and suffer a fine and exposure to a year in jail if they nail you.

(It isn't cheap to take the train or bus, either. Figure $400 a month for the train, plus $50 for parking, and then you get to pay NY's out of state commuter income tax.)