MTA panel
listens
WEST NYACK – Residents, commuters, and government officials from all over Rockland County gathered at the Palisades Mall on Thursday to decry a proposed four percent increase in fares for Metro-North customers.
During the public hearing hosted by the MTA Thursday held in West Nyack, transit officials were inundated with calls to cancel the proposed increase and improve the quality of the services offered to commuters west of the Hudson River.
Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committed to the MTA, said a fare hike is inevitable, but not now, because of poor service, especially on West of Hudson lines.
“Cancelled service, delayed trains, the loss of two express trains, one in the morning and one in the evening, the fact that New Jersey Transit riders have gotten 10 percent discount for three months because of lousy service they have been getting,” Daglian said. “West of Hudson riders should get the same service. For them not to is not fair.”
New Jersey Transit operates Metro-North’s West of Hudson service
and Rockland County Executive Edwin Day finds it “amazing the consideration
of fares being increased when our service has gone into the gutter here
in Rockland. NJT has failed; Metro North has failed.”
The county exec spoke out against the cancellation of express trains from New York City to Rockland. He also complained that trains are frequently behind schedule.
Day has previously described the quality of the Metro-North trains themselves as “hellish” and “unacceptable,” complaining that many train cars operating on the Pascack Valley Line do not have usable restrooms or air conditioning and are often severely overcrowded.
The executive also said it “unconscionable” that a recent 10 percent discount offered to New Jersey Transit customers was not also extended to Rockland commuters who use the same service, a complaint also voiced by Orangetown Supervisor Christopher Day and Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann.
Day said the most pressing issue between the county and the MTA is “the value gap of $40 million, which is difficult to swallow to say the least.” He alleged that Rockland residents are not getting their money’s worth out of their payments “and are not getting the service (they) even minimally need.”
Since 2005, MTA has implemented four fare increases for the NJT line and seven for Metro-North lines, totaling 11 increases in 12 years; more increases than any other commuter in the Tri-State area. Metro-North has also canceled five different express trains this month alone.
“We have to make sure that the MTA gets it act together before any fare increase is allowed,” said Senator David Carlucci, who also spoke out against the fare hike. Carlucci vowed to push for a forensic audit of the MTA so that the organization knows “from top to bottom where every dime is going.” The Senator said the MTA must reform its practices before it should expect any increase in funding.
“Reliability is falling apart,” said the senator when describing the current quality of MTA services. Carlucci also echoed Ed Day’s concerns about the value gap between the county and the MTA, complaining the Rockland residents “are paying tens of millions of dollars more in taxes and fares than we are receiving in services.”
