Jul 21, 2007 7:40 am US/Eastern
First Congestion Pricing, Now An MTA Fare Hike?
New Yorkers Frustrated By City's Latest Money-Making Venture
by Marcia Kramer
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
It doesn't matter if you drive or take the train into Manhattan -- you could be shelling out a lot more money.
Talk about governmental bait and switch. Mayor Michael Bloomberg sold New Yorkers on his congestion pricing plan by claiming a toll to enter Manhattan would hold down bus and subway fares.
"We need the monies to pay the people who work for our mass transit system for the MTA we want to be able to hold the fares down because you don't want to have disincentives for people to take mass transit," Bloomberg said Sunday.
But just hours after the legislature gave the green light to the mayor's controversial plan, the MTA said budget deficits will mean price hikes on buses, subways, commuter rails and bridges and tunnels.
MTA CEO Elliot Sander confirmed it.
"I've always said it was a real possibility," Sander said.
Governor Eliot Spitzer seemed to favor the increase, too.
"Everything has to be considered," Spitzer said. "We need to be honest in terms of we can pay for the system."
But Bloomberg adamantly refused to talk about it.
The mayor had no comment and kept walking. He talked with his press secretary and he had plenty of time to pose for a picture with a well wisher, but on the fare hike he was determinedly silent.
New Yorkers were not.
"You try to do it and take public transportation," one person said. "If it's going to keep going up, it's (going to be) impossible."
Added another: "Kind of ironic. A little unfortunate, too."
Still others took a more militant tone.
"I'm totally against it," another said. "I use the train and bus for everything, so it would hurt me if they went up. I think they're already too high."
How steep will the fare hikes be? Officials said they wouldn't talk about it until a board meeting on Wednesday.
But that's not the only thing going up,
The Port Authority also wants to raise bridge and tunnel tolls on its New York-New Jersey crossings.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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