Hoehmann and Day, at the Nanuet station
NANUET – Orangetown Supervisor Chris Day and Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann are ticked off with the MTA for excluding Rockland County residents from a 10 percent Metro-North train discount being offered to NJ Transit customer; The two town officials made their concern public while at the Nanuet train station on Monday.
Rockland commuters who ride the Pascack Valley line, which is owned by the MTA/Metro-North and operated by NJ Transit, will not be able to benefit from discounted prices, despite the fact that commuters up and down the line have been severely inconvenienced by late and cancelled trains.
“We’ve had some real issues and concerns with what’s been taking place with this service,” said Hoehmann, “We have concerns that our residents are being disaffected by this grievous decision from Metro-North.”
He said Rockland commuters are often treated as second-class customers by the MTA which has provided what he said was frustrating and inadequate service to local residents.
“The people in Clarkstown and Orangetown have been dealing with substandard service from New Jersey Transit for quite some time now,” said Day, who warned that the service “is only going to get worse” as the MTA continues to cut express trains and warns of further delays.
Supervisor Day’s father, County Executive Edwin Day, has previously described the quality of the Metro-North trains themselves as “hellish” and “unacceptable,” noting that many train cars operating on the Pascack Valley line do not have usable restrooms or air condition and are often severely overcrowded.
“We put a lot of money into MTA taxes to be a part of Metro-North and we don’t get much out of it,” said Supervisor Day when explaining that residents of Montvale NJ, which is only 10 minutes away from the Pearl River station, will be enjoying a discount denied to Rockland residents.
“We need to make sure that every rider on this line gets the appropriate discount, just like every other passenger on this line will,” the younger Day said.
The MTA plans to help Rockland riders by making improvements to the Nanuet station, however Supervisor Day described the repairs as “a band aid fix” and said it would preferable to put that money directly into the pockets of Rockland commuters by expanding the discount.
Supervisors Day and Hoehmann have both promised to consider withdrawing from the MTA if the authority “can’t defend the rights of our commuters.”
