NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Connecticut’s looming $1.5 billion budget deficit for fiscal 2003 could mean higher prices for rides on Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven Line, the Connecticut Post reported.
Gov. John G. Rowland’s recent slashing of the state’s budget by more than $68 million is an attempt to avoid hiking certain taxes and fees such as fare prices on the New Haven Line of Metro-North Railroad, according to Julie Cammarata, policy manager for the state Office of Policy Management. However, the impending 2004 fiscal budget crisis prompted OPM to issue a request that all state departments trim their budgets by 10 percent for the coming year, and the Department of Transportation instead offered an option boosting railroad rates by 10 percent.
In the report, dated Nov. 8, the DOT states a one-way fare from Bridgeport to New York’s Grand Central Station would rise from $12.75 to $14. The fare from Stamford to Grand Central would rise from $10 to $11. The report notes that Connecticut’s current fares are 18.38 percent higher than those for the same trip starting from New York and states “all users of the New Haven Line rail service would be impacted by increased fares.”
For example, a one-way trip from Greenwich into Grand Central costs $9. That trip, begun two miles away in Port Chester, N.Y., costs $6.75. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees Metro-North operations from the New York side, is expected to raise its fares in March.According to the DOT, an increase in Connecticut would generate approximately $7.8 million in fiscal 2003 and more than $10.8 million in fiscal 2004. Connecticut’s Legislature develops the state’s budget for two fiscal years at a time.
The DOT also states that the New Haven Line accommodated 32.7 million person trips in fiscal 2002 and hasn’t raised the fare since 1998, when it was increased by 4.5 percent.
The fare increase could surface during Legislative discussions for the fiscal 2004 budget. The report indicates this is the only time frame for which the fare hikes are under consideration, but so far both the DOT and the governor’s office have been skittish about calling this a serious proposal. Cammarata said it was only an option and one that would only be pursued after all other options are exhausted.
To that end, the governor just finished cutting $68 million from the state’s budget. Among his cuts were $2.7 million in school transportation aid and $417,000 to distressed municipalities.
The special transportation fund was also slashed by more than $2 million. That fund encompasses railroad operations but the DOT said the cuts should not directly impact operations on the railroads.