(The following article by Judy Rife was posted on the Times Herald-Record website on April 6.)
NEW YORK — The region’s transit agencies think higher fuel costs are here to stay but there’s no consensus yet on what they will mean for the price of commuter bus and train tickets.
“I don’t think we’ll know before the preliminary budget (for 2007) is submitted in July,” said Mercedes Padilla, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “And then, the budget won’t be approved until December.”
At NJ Transit, where the new fiscal year begins July 1 and not Jan. 1, a spokesman also deflected any speculation.
“We’re not going to do any fuel surcharge or anything this (fiscal) year and it’s too early to say whether we’ll do anything next year,” said Dan Stessel.
The MTA, NJ Transit and Coach USA/Short Line raised fares last year – and then saw their fuel costs soar beyond their budget projections and remain at record levels.
This week, Short Line, the mid-Hudson’s leading commuter bus company, was the first to blink. Fares, which rose an average of 4 percent last year, will rise another 5.5 percent on May 1.
The reason? Coach paid an average of $1.25 a gallon for diesel in 2004-05; $1.88 in 2005-06 and is paying $2.04 today.
Anne-Marie Williams of Highland Mills said nobody on the bus has talked about anything else since – but the prevailing mood is “mostly resignation.” “I don’t foresee any large movement away from the bus (to the train or carpools) since it depends on what is more convenient,” said Williams.
Tom Michaels of Blooming Grove agreed: “Metro-North has me over a barrel. As long as I continue to commute to downtown Manhattan, the train is my only viable option.”
Metro-North, a unit of the MTA, is paying $2.25 a gallon for diesel today versus an average of $1.81 last year and $1.26 in 2004. The cost of electricity, which powers many of its trains, has barely budged but the railroad doesn’t expect that to last.
NJ Transit expects to exceed its $49 million budget for train and bus fuel by about $22 million when its fiscal year ends June 30. Seven months ago, the amount of red ink was projected at $13 million.
Nancy Fasano, who takes the bus from the Central Valley park-and-ride, said she thinks the nearby gas station “has a guy who just changes the price signs.”
“The price of gas goes up and down hourly and we’ve had the house as cold as we can stand it but those fuel oil bills are a killer,” said Fasano. “Where does it end?”