Port Authority toll hikes irk commuters

Drivers who paid $12 to take the Holland Tunnel into Manhattan Sunday faced the steep toll hike with a mix of frustration and resignation.

Randy Rajaram, 23, of Jamaica, Queens, shrugged, "You can't do anything about it," as he filled his car with gas in Newport, N.J., before entering the tunnel and forking over 50 percent more than the previous toll of $8.

Cash tolls on Hudson River crossings owned by the Port Authority -- including the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge -- increased Sunday at 3 a.m.

E-ZPass users on bridges and tunnels from New Jersey to New York will pay $9.50, up from $8. Trucks will pay $13 per axle. Cash tolls will increase to $15 by December 2015.

"Just getting to work has become a chore. You need a second job to get to work," said Phil Ferrante, 37, who travels daily from his Staten Island home across the Outerbridge Crossing to flight school in Morristown, N.J. "I'll try to avoid the city at all costs at this point."

Rajaram, who Sunday was visiting aunts and uncles in East Orange, N.J., said the toll hike would force him to cut back on quality time with his family.

"It will affect me in the sense that I'll see them less," he said.

The Port Authority had proposed even steeper toll hikes, but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had threatened to veto them.

The agency said it needs the funds following losses suffered due to security-related projects in the years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a drop in revenue caused by the global economic crisis and the development of the $11 billion World Trade Center complex.

Funds raised will go toward infrastructure repairs and upgrades, as well as World Trade Center construction, the Port Authority said.

Korey Conyers, 42, of South Orange, N.J., who was on his way to the city with his mother to visit the World Trade Center plaza, said Port Authority officials could have looked for funds somewhere other than commuters' pockets.

"They can take it out of the pay of the executives making $200,000 and $300,000. Take it out of their big Christmas bonuses," Conyers said.

PATH train fares also went up Sunday, from $1.75 to $2.

Adele Grodstein, of Haworth, N.J., who drives weekly to Manhattan to visit her son and run errands, said she planned to brave public transportation.

"I take the George Washington Bridge a lot," she said, "so I'm probably going to take the bus a little bit more. I'll take the subway, too. Get a MetroCard to go with my E-ZPass."

With AP