NEW CITY – Rockland County Executive Ed Day received a response letter from Metro-North President Catherine Rinaldi containing yet another refusal to give West of Hudson riders a ten-percent fare reduction. After much advocacy for a fare reduction by local elected officials over the summer, NJ TRANSIT (NJT) announced a ten-percent discount on NJT rail fares for travel in November, December and January in acknowledgement of disrupted service due to ongoing PTC (Positive Train Control) installation.
Unfortunately, this reduction applies ONLY to NJT rail service but does not apply to MNR service, despite canceled trains and inconsistent levels of service. Metro-North contracts with NJ TRANSIT to provide it’s West of Hudson service, and riders on the Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines have suffered through months of cancellations and delays as NJT attempts to complete its PTC installation.
“As indicated in your letter, Metro-North customers who commute on the Port Jervis and Pascack Valley Lines were fortunately not affected by the latest round of service reductions and therefore will not receive the 10% fare discount,” said Rinaldi in her letter.
That is not the response Day was hoping for
“In the spirit of goodwill, NJT offered this fare discount to its riders and frankly it is ridiculous that Metro-North will not do the same for their West of Hudson riders,” said County Executive Ed Day. “The improvements being touted by MNR are really repairs that have needed to be done for quite a long time and using the express train savings to fund the work should not have been necessary. It is time for Metro-North to give its riders a break as a minor compensation for the abhorrent service they have suffered, the same as commuters in New Jersey.”
Rockland County is continuing to request that Metro-North extend the same discount to its West of Hudson customers that NJT is providing. We also expect that Metro-North recommend to the MTA Board that there should be no fare increases for West of Hudson riders.
