NEWARK, N.J. — A coalition of mass transit, consumer and environmental advocates joined here today to denounce proposed fare increases for New Jersey Transit buses and trains, urging state lawmakers to raise the consumer gasoline tax instead, according to the New York Times.
New Jersey Transit announced last week that in April it plans to raise most fares an average of 10 percent, the agency’s first fare increase since 1991. But opponents noted that it had been even longer since the retail gasoline tax, known as the motor fuels tax, was raised.
At a news conference outside Penn Station here this morning, the opponents said the fare increase would only discourage commuters from using mass transit — a particularly bad idea, they said, given increasing highway congestion linked to growth, and New Jersey’s lagging efforts to reduce auto emissions.
The groups in the coalition are the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, the New Jersey Association of Rail Passengers, New Jersey Citizen Action, the Sierra Club and the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group.
Jeff Tittel, executive director of the state chapter of the Sierra Club, said in an interview that transit ridership had increased greatly throughout the region since Sept. 11, and added that raising fares could only turn away some of those new riders. “Raising fares tells people, `You might as well ride your car and keep polluting,’ ” he said.
After public hearings scheduled for Jan. 2, Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco, a Republican, could approve the proposal on Jan. 7, the day before he is replaced by Governor-elect James E. McGreevey, a Democrat. The timing would allow Mr. McGreevey to avoid signing off on a fare increase that could be politically costly, fueling speculation that there has been some kind of agreement between the two leaders, a notion both men have denied.
The proposed fare increase seems at odds with conventional wisdom that more incremental increases help retain riders. “Ten percent, that’s big — that’s the classic way not to do it,” said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, in Washington.
But Assemblyman Alex DeCroce, chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, rejected the idea that raising the gasoline tax would be wiser than a fare increase, saying that the tax already generates money for mass transit.
The tax raises $420 million a year, including about $360 million for the state Transportation Trust Fund, which finances both highway and mass transit projects, said John Dourgarian, a spokesman for the State Department of Transportation, which oversees New Jersey Transit. He would not comment on the criticism, except to say that a gas tax increase would require legislation.