Commuters rip MTA on cuts, fare hikes

 Long Island commuters fed up with being forced to pay higher fares for dwindling transit services sounded off on the MTA at a pair of events in Nassau County Thursday, giving agency brass an earful about deep service cuts, proposed fare hikes and other frustrations they have faced.

Despite severe weather and power outages that stranded hundreds of evening-rush riders at Penn Station, about 200 people packed a Garden City Hotel ballroom Thursday night for a public hearing hosted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The hearing was intended to gather feedback on a plan to raise fares in January, including by as much as 9.4 percent on the Long Island Rail Road and by as much as $41 on an unlimited monthly MetroCard.

But angry commuters took the opportunity to complain about various trials they have faced, including recently enacted service cuts on the LIRR, Long Island Bus and the Able-Ride system for the disabled, a new payroll tax affecting Long Island business owners, and the possibility of LI Bus shutting down altogether unless the MTA and Nassau County reach a new agreement on how to fund the system.

“The commuters in New York have had it with the MTA board appearing with their hands open asking for more money from the commuters while service deteriorates,” said Larry Rubenstein of Bellmore, a member of the LIRR Commuter Council.
He chided the agency for not looking for creative solutions to its fiscal crisis. “I ask you on behalf of all commuters: Don’t take the easy route. Take the harder route.”

For hours, commuters, civic leaders, transit advocates and elected officials vented their aggravations about the region’s transit system. Politicians blasted the MTA for what they said was wasteful spending, including on high overtime costs and maintenance of real estate properties that are sitting empty.

“We’ve heard from thousands and thousand of commuters and their song is the same. We can’t afford to pay up ... They are, quite frankly, disgusted,” state Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) said to the panel of MTA board members and executives.

“If you reverse MTA, it’s ATM. And that’s how you’re treating everyone on Long Island,” Fuschillo said to raucous cheers.
Although several speakers said they did not hold much hope that the hearing would accomplish anything, MTA chief executive Jay Walder said he and his colleagues “very much do have our ears open” and would use public input in determining the specifics of the fare hikes, which he said remain necessary.

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

“I would wish that we wouldn’t have higher fares but I don’t think there is any real option for us right now,” said Walder, who noted that the State Legislature has made it clear it won’t be bailing out the MTA from its $900-million budget deficit.

Earlier in the evening, hundreds more gathered at the Rosa Parks Transit Center in Hempstead for a rally against the MTA’s plan to withdraw financial support of LI Bus. The agency is owned by Nassau but operated and largely subsidized by the MTA, which has said it no longer can afford to make up for Nassau’s funding shortfalls.

Holding signs with messages such as “How will I get to work?” the protesters marched through the rush-hour crowd at the bus terminal.

Nassau Legis. Robert Troiano (D-Westbury), who organized the rally, said the riders of LI Bus represent some of the most vulnerable of all commuters, because many of them have low incomes, do not own a car and depend on their bus lines in order to survive.

“We know that the state is broke. The MTA is broke. The county is broke. But nobody is more broke than the people who ride Long Island Bus,” Troiano said.