Pataki Budget: Proposes Huge
Shortfall for Transit
In his budget speech last Tuesday, Governor Pataki said
he was proposing $19 billion MTA and $17 billion NY State
DOT capital programs. The apparent advantage to the MTA
is New York City’s $2 billion plan to extend the
#7 subway line into the far West Side of midtown Manhattan,
not any state initiative to boost transit funding over
road spending.
Connecticut Groups Demand Better Rail, Road Funding
In Hartford last Wednesday, elected officials, environmental
groups and labor advocates rallied for transportation
funding to improve the state’s deteriorating roads,
bridges, and transit systems. The event was convened
by the CT Citizens Transportation Lobby, a Fairfield
County group that emerged from Metro-North’s 2003-4
winter of woe when snow and cold idled large portions
of the New Haven Line’s aging train fleet.
TEA-Never?
With TEA-21 reauthorization now more than 500 days overdue
(the1998 transportation funding authorization expired
on September 30th, 2003) TEA-watchers are starting to
wonder if a multi-year federal transportation bill is
really in the cards. The most recent TEA-21 extension
bill, the sixth so far, expires at the end of May.
SI Residents: Less NASCAR Parking
At recent community forums, Staten Island residents asked
International Speedway Corp. (ISC) to further limit parking
for its proposed NASCAR facility. Many Staten Island
residents worry the 80,000-seat raceway will greatly
worsen traffic– despite ISC’s sophisticated
traffic management plan that limits car-driving fans
to an 8,400 space parking lot.
Fare Hike Signal to New Jersey: Get Serious About Transit
Funding
NJ Transit director George Warrington outlined a set
of bus and rail fare increases last Wednesday. The would
raise commuter rail and bus fares an average of 13% and
the Hudson-Bergen light rail fare by 25 cents, to $1.75.
The Trenton-Camden’s "introductory" $1.10
rate will give way to $1.25 fares, and Newark City subways
will see a 13% hike in one way fares, but no increase
for monthly passes.
NYS's Workers, Transit Cost Going Down
WageWorks, a leading private provider of pre-tax benefits
for health care and commuter benefits, announced New
York State will use its "NYS-Ride "program
to provide commuter benefits for 35,000 executive branch
employees in New York City."
