Port Authority OKs Hudson toll, fare hikes
Cars approach the toll booth at the George Washington bridge in Fort Lee, N.J. Millions of drivers will pay $2 more to get into New York City, and commuter train riders will pay an extra 25 cents in hikes. (Jan. 4, 2008) Credit: AP
Commuters will pay $1.50 more to drive across the Hudson River beginning next month, part of a plan approved by the Port Authority Friday that raises bridge and tunnel tolls and PATH train fares.
The authority board voted 9-0 to raise E-ZPass tolls by $1.50 on Sept. 18, and by another 75 cents every year through 2015.
Cash-paying customers will see an additional $2 "penalty" on top of the same increase. Fares on PATH will rise 25 cents per year for the next four years.
The increases recommended by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie avoided a far steeper fare and toll increase proposed by the authority earlier this month. The agency, which oversees area ports, airports and Hudson crossings, originally proposed hiking tolls by $6 over four years, rather than by the $4.50 proposed by the governors.
"I believe we have reached the right balance," Port Authority chairman David Samson said Friday.
Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) wasn't sold on the plan, saying the governors fumbled the issue by supporting toll hikes before a full-scale independent audit could be completed.
The governors, who control the authority's board, signed off on the toll hikes Thursday on the condition that the Port Authority launch a top-to-bottom audit.
Authority board members stood by the hikes, which will support a $25.1-billion capital plan that includes rebuilding the World Trade Center and making improvements to the George Washington Bridge, Goethels Bridge and Lincoln Tunnel.
Members of the Twin Towers Alliance, a citizens group, blasted the agency for allowing the World Trade Center project to drag at a cost of billions and placing the burden on motorists.
"The Port Authority needs to pay for this mess," said Alliance member Richard Hughes, "not the commuters of New York and New Jersey."
One of those commuters is Shahrokh Saeed, 40, who travels from Long Island to his job as an analyst at a pharmaceutical company in Jersey City each day via PATH.
"The fare keeps increasing, yet they [the Port Authority] don't ever seem to know what their costs are," he said.
With Yancey Roy and AP
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
