(The following article by Greg Clary was posted on the White Plains Journal News website on November 10.)
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Eileen Schunke, a government securities trader from New City, said she won’t be one of the riders giving her opinion today at Metropolitan Transportation Authority hearings on proposed fare hikes as high as 14 percent.
“First of all, I have kids at home and, secondly, I don’t know if it’s going to matter,” Schunke said.
Rhonda Bland also has no plans to attend any of the five hearings — one of which starts at 4 p.m. today in Westchester — because she can’t afford the time.
“By the time I got to my car and drove to Westchester, I might as well take a half-day off from work,” she said. “Getting to and from work is tough enough. Add in the headache of getting to the hearings, and forget it. People are upset about it. I’m hoping my colleagues on the train will do it. Our paychecks sure aren’t going up like that.”
The MTA has hearings every time it proposes higher fares, and normally, riders turn out to voice their opinions. The first hearing was Monday night on Staten Island and drew 57 speakers. Most people don’t go unless they’re there to voice their opinion. It’s not a spectator sport, though it can be a bit of a marathon.
“They have to register by 8 p.m.,” said MTA spokesman Tom Kelly. “And we stay until everyone is done.”
Today’s local hearing is at the Westchester County Center, 198 Central Ave., White Plains. Kelly acknowledged that the MTA never had held off on a fare hike after hearings, but it has “made modifications” to the proposals initially floated.
Some riders on the two train lines serving Rockland were under the impression that NJ Transit fares would not be raised because the New Jersey railroad isn’t part of the MTA.
Unfortunately, that’s not true. Because Metro-North Railroad is part of the MTA and is responsible for train service west and east of the Hudson, the fares would go up for rail riders throughout Rockland.
Schunke said the MTA has used the typical negotiating ploy of coming in high and scaring everyone enough that they won’t mind compromising later.
“I still think it’s going to settle in somewhere in the middle,” Schunke said. “The trouble is, we just had a fare hike, so this is not going to sit very well. They’re just getting better at playing the game. I just think some things are predetermined, and a fare hike is predetermined. It’s just a question of how much.”
Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, who represents a sizable portion of Rockland, was less diplomatic in comments he e-mailed yesterday to The Journal News.
“Once again the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has played bait and switch with the riding public by threatening massive fare increases to close a budget gap and then coming up with lesser increases so it won’t sound so bad,” Engel wrote. “The MTA cannot be allowed to solve all its problems just by raising fares and then giving less service and laying off necessary workers.”
Schunke said she could understand increases in costs if service were improved as well, but so far she hasn’t seen that and doesn’t see many other options.
“I honestly don’t want to go back to driving,” she said. “After 9/11, I drove to Princeton, N.J., for nine months. The stress was too much. By the time I got home at night, I was certifiable. This news is worse than usual because it is coming on the heels of people getting laid off or cut back.”
One commuter in Suffern said he didn’t care about the price hike or the hearings because after Jan. 1, his job would be eliminated.
For those Rockland commuters who still need to get to work after the proposed fare hikes expected to start in March, the other mass transit option is the bus.
“We’ll have to see how much the train goes up compared to the buses,” Schunke said. “If they would just do a cost-of-living increase, people could live with that. This is a lot of money, especially after taxes.”
West Milford, N.J., resident Doris Sumter, who rides NJ Transit from Suffern to get to her job on Wall Street, said she’ll be at the hearings.
“I’m going,” Sumter said as she descended a staircase at the Suffern station Monday. “I want to hear what they have to say. I’m totally upset. They’re raising the prices on everything.”
Sumter said the increasing cost of parking combined with proposed increases for the subway, commuter rail and PATH trains is hurting commuters across the board.
“What else is left?” she said. “They’ve got us everywhere.”