Current edition: Mobilizing the Region #484
December 21, 2004
MTA Hikes Fares, Holds Back Extra Revenue
Despite calls from angry straphangers and policy groups, the MTA did not use its entire $330 million in additional revenue to thwart this year’s fare hikes. Last Thursday, the agency approved fare hikes and service cuts, including raising fares, tolls, and closing 164 subway station booths.
An informal New York State commission has released its findings on the state of transportation systems and funding, and predicts a bumpy road ahead.
Agency Re-Shuffle in Tappan Zee Study
The NY State DOT looks to have a new "integrator" role in a multi-agency jurisdiction sooner than the state advisory panel thought — the Journal News reported last week that the DOT was taking over the Tappan Zee/I-287 corridor environmental impact study process.
The NY State Thruway Authority has announced its intention to increase tolls in 2005. The agency’s board last week gave preliminary approval for a plan that would hike passenger car cash tolls 25% next year, with a further 10% increase in 2008. The increases would be discounted somewhat for drivers using E-ZPass. The Thruway looks likely to hold hearings and take final action on a new toll plan in the first half of the new year.
Motorists Hit MTA on Retro Toll Stance
The January Car & Travel, the magazine of the NY chapter of the AAA, admonishes the MTA for refusing to consider non-gated express E-ZPass lanes for its toll bridges in its new five year capital program. The organization awards the MTA a "Red Light" for its "no go attitude."
World Trade Center Transportation Issues Unsettled, Unsettling
Since the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, charged with leading the rebuilding process selected Studio Libeskind’s plan for the World Trade Center site, almost all of the publicly revealed decisions have been about specific buildings. They include the Freedom Tower design, the entryway for the new PATH station, the choice of architects for the Cultural Center and the performing arts space.
Clean Trucks on the Slow Road?
New federal regulations for diesel engines and diesel fuel are expected to cut fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) from trucks by as much as 90 percent. These reductions would be welcome by the 25 tri-state counties which learned last Friday that the EPA had found them to be failing new PM 2.5 standards.
| Each week, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign publishes Mobilizing the Region, or MTR. MTR is a bulletin on New Jersey, New York and Connecticut transportation news and opinion from the perspective of advocacy for sustainable transportation. |
| MTR #484 printable format (PDF) file (requires Adobe Acrobat).
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GO TO INDEX of past issues of MTR, since Fall 1994.ll M
Recent editions:
MTR 483-December 13, 2004
MTR 482-December 6, 2004
MTR 481-November 22, 2004
MTR 480-November 8, 2004
