Thursday, December 18, 2008

MTA RATES AFFECT UPSTATE


Get ready for some more bad news.

The MTA has just announced that the board is prepared to increase fares on commuter rail and road tolls as well as implement new tolls on some once free bridges in the metro area.

Our upstate economy has already suffered enough without increasing the costs of residents who still trek down to NYC for work.

23% is the number being floated around, and the Board, unless some magical influx of new funding, is expected to vote on this rate hike in April. The pocket gouging wont take effect until June, but who thinks this will help the Hudson Valley in our effort to survive this avalanche of new fees, diminished revenues and rising unemployment numbers?

There are a few months to go before we "discover" new revenues for the MTA, but keeping this from the public during this holiday season isnt going to make it any easier after your New Years Day hangover.

Happy trails everyone.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I park in the Poughkeepsie Train Garage every morning and have seen those rates gradually increase as have the fares to New York. At some point you'll have the cost of driving equal to the train. Once that happens, all parking in NYC will either increase or become more of a nightmare. The MTA has really got to see what affect this will have on the commuters if this keeps up.