No one writing or speaking from New York, for instance, notes that port facilities on the NY side of the harbor are losing money.

But but all editorial comment in NY seems to lead to the $1 PATH fare. On April 13, for instance, the NY Times wrote that "subsidies for PATH trains are too high." Yet PATH fares cover a share of operating costs (46%) that compares favorably to most public transit in the U.S., and is not far behind New York systems like the Long Island Rail Road. Last year, we showed that a PATH fare hike would bring in about the same amount of money the Port Authority now gives away to drivers in the form of E-ZPass and other toll discounts (see MTR #152).

Indeed, the PA's bridge and tunnel cash cows seem to have escaped any real attention in the last week's round of debate. But the region's real fare imbalance is not between NYC subways and PATH, it's between the $4 round-trip tolls for cross-Hudson motorists and the $7 per round-trip at MTA bridges and tunnels in NYC.

If New York leaders want to find new transportation investment resources, they should forget about small political game like the PATH fare and encourage the PA and New Jersey to close the regional toll gap.