Campaign Launched to Prevent PATH Fare Hike
Hoboken councilman Pete Cammarano wants to prevent the Port Authority from hitting PATH riders with a proposed fare increase and has launched StopThePathHike.com to coordinate a grass roots effort to keep fares as they are. New Jersey has a 50% stake in the Port Authority, which gives Governor Corzine, a Hoboken resident, veto power. Of course, we suspect Corzine doesn't ride the PATH very often, so if you want your voice to be heard, be sure to Sign the Petition.
Labels: Transportation
3 Comments:
Okay, so I'm a fan of the PATH, and this is not an unbiased comment. But consider that they have the oldest transit cars in the country -- some are 40 years old. They have gotten to the point where the floors have worn out, and the cars have to be shipped offsite to have the floors replaced. The fare hike would help pay for 300+ new cars that are on the way, as well as a new billon-dollar signal system that will increase capacity and allow trains to run more frequently. The money has got to come from someplace; shouldn't the riders be asked to help? Politicians love to fulminate about taxes and fare hikes, because it's politically popular, but what alternative is Mr. Cammarano offering?
Well, on one hand, you're right. Port Authority is an entirely independent, subsidy free government corporation. But on the other hand, every commuter to New York benefits when a person decides to ride the PATH rather than drive into Manhattan. There is a communal benefit to encouraging more people to ride the PATH system.
Similarly, when commuters choose to drive into Manhattan, everyone looses. Traffic congestion, additional pollution, parking shortages-- this is all the result of too many people driving into the city. And this is not just limited to New York. Regionally, the entire network of roads is effected by New York commuters. The Turnpike, I-80, I-78 and the roads feeding to these arteries all serve city commuters. Suburban commuters who never even enter New York benefit when more people ride mass transit, be it either PATH or heavy rail or bus because the roads suburban drivers take are the same roads city commuters use to get to the bridges an tunnels.
A better solution to raising fare rates on the PATH would be to hike tolls on bridges and tunnels and subsidize the PATH system with that increased revenue. The greater disparity in price between mass transit and driving becomes an economic incentive to using mass transit-- benefiting everyone. Mass transit riders benefit from cheaper fares. Drivers benefit because there are fewer delays as more people choose to drive.
The fare hike should also correspond to improved services. While there are a new shipment of PATH rail cars headed into service over the next 18 months, past budgets paid for them. Meanwhile, major improvements such as platform extensions and ADA accessibility have been promised in the past, and never delivered upon. While the Port Authority understandably needs money to make improvements, they long have been neglecting the PATH system and have no vision for the future needs of the system. Additionally, the Port Authority, spending a huge sum rebuilding the World Trade Center site, continues to neglect New Jersey's interests.
While future fare hikes are inevitable, the Port Authority should make good on broken promises, provide for future needs, and consider that fare hikes are also public policy decisions.
The PATH system is already heavily subsidized. Look at the PA's budget. The PATH system runs at an enormous loss, financed by fees from drivers on the PA's crossings (which make an enormous profit off the captive drivers) and airport fees. You aren't asking for the PATH to be subsidized -- it already is. You are asking for it to be subsidized MORE. I use both the Holland Tunnel and the PATH, so the PA taxes me to subsidize . . . me. This makes no sense to me. At any rate, PATH patrons are people with middle class or better jobs in Manhattan. We can afford and should pay the full cost of our fares, and I would gladly do so if it meant that the PA had money freed up to make my commute less brutal. As a beggar, a PATH commuter has little recourse to complain about riding on ancient equipment in cramped conditions. Let us pay our own operating costs and reserve the subsidies for capacity expansions.
I know this is heresy, by the way, but we need more lanes in the Holland Tunnel too. This city has just undergone a 50 year experiment in seeing what happens when no new roads are built. What happens is that it becomes impossible to get around. Brooklyn and Queens may as well be in Pennsylvania. There is no connectivity between our fair city and areas beyond the Hudson because our infrastructure is an antiquated joke. I have family and friends in L.I., CT, Queens. I barely see them. They can't get here. I have no doubt many of the people reading this site have the same problem. Stop pretending that a magical day will come when everyone from the elderly, to families with kids, to people carrying heavy stuff, will suddenly abandon cars and travel on rails everywhere. It's not happening, not here not in Europe, not anywhere. We need trains and we need lanes. We need more of everything and spending our political capital haggling over whether our PATH fare is 1.50 or 2.00 is silly.
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