Around the Region: LIRR Riders Want Free Transfers Too
Nassau and Suffolk County Executives and business and commuter representatives are pressuring the MTA to extend its bus/subway transfer policy -- set to begin July 1997-- to LIRR riders, emphasizing the need to consider transportation on a regional basis. But how would such a system work technically? Metro-Card can facilitate a single bus/subway transfer, but the LIRR has not electronic fare media. Free subways for Long Islanders? And are Long Island officials unwittingly reopening the issue of the relative subsidies to the different parts of the MTA (commuter rail trips are already more heavily subsidized than city transit trips)? The MTA plan for NYC would allow Metro-Card users to transfer for free between many NYC buses and the subway.
