(The following article by Joshua Robin was published in Newsday on May 20.)
NEW YORK — New Yorkers looking for a transit fare hike rollback might have caught a break when a fellow straphanger, Justice Louis York, decided to overturn the MTA’s
recent fare hikes last week.
Whether they’ll be as lucky on appeal starting this week is an open question.
The names – and commuting habits – of the justices ruling on the next battle for farebox justice likely won’t be known until June 9.
“We don’t release to the public who the judges will be until 3 p.m. the day before the argument takes place,” said Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, the clerk of the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division’s first department.
Arguments are expected June 10 on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s appeal of State Supreme Court Justice York’s decision that found the agency unlawfully misled riders before adopting the biggest fare hike in its history.
But before those arguments, the MTA and the transit group that brought the suit, the Straphangers Campaign, are expected in court tomorrow on another matter: whether the base subway and bus fare should remain $2 until the appeals court panel rules on the MTA appeal.
York’s decision rolled back the fare hike to $1.50 as of May 28, concluding it misled riders and their own board members. The MTA claims it shouldn’t have to rescind the $2 fare until the case is resolved.
Lawyers for the Straphangers say if the fares aren’t rolled back on May 28, the MTA should be required to hold whatever cash it makes above $1.50 per ride in escrow and possibly post signs on subways asking riders to hold onto MetroCards and receipts.
Thomas Shanahan, a lawyer for the Straphangers, said he will ask the MTA to put “some system in place to refund the difference back to the riders” should he prevail on appeal.
As if the case involving subway, bus and commuter rail fares isn’t enough, there is another skirmish over the recent toll hike. The Automobile Club of New York is expected in court tomorrow, seeking to roll back the increase in bridge and tunnel tolls.
As many riders can recall, this isn’t the first time New Yorkers waited to see how much to plunk down at the token booth while judges considered the legality of a fare hike.
Around the time of the 1995 hike, which bumped rides to $1.50 from $1.25, the Straphangers Campaign sued the MTA. They were joined by the Urban League in a lawsuit that contended the new fares discriminated against minority riders because a disproportionate percentage of state funding goes to suburban rail lines used predominantly by white riders.
A U.S. District Court judge blocked the fare hike, but after an appeals panel remanded the case back to district court, both sides settled. The fare stayed at $1.50, and the MTA agreed to fund an academic study of transit funding in the state, said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.
The Straphangers were then represented by Eric Schneiderman. Now a state senator, Schneiderman is representing the group in court again, along with Shanahan.
Staff writer Graham Rayman contributed to this story.