(Newsday posted the following article by Joie Tyrrell on its website on November 4.)
NEW YORK — Just days before a public hearing on proposed Long Island Rail Road fare increases, transit officials said Thursday the increases will average 5 percent and service cuts won’t be needed.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials had said that fares could go 20 percent higher next year and service cuts, including station and car cleaning, could have been made.
But Thursday Tom Kelly, spokesman for the MTA, said those cuts won’t be necessary. Increased subsidies from real estate taxes, lower debt service expenses and other changes have added $300 million to the budget.
MTA Executive Director Katherine Lapp stated to MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow that she anticipates the agency could receive an additional $117 million in real estate taxes and an additional $42 million from debt service costs. The agency had initially been facing a 2005 deficit of $436 million.
“The net effect of these re-estimates … on the 2005 budget is significant,” Lapp said in a memo to Kalikow.
Kelly said the MTA is looking at trimming discounts given to LIRR commuters, and fare increases could range from a little below 5 percent for some and up to 7 percent for other riders depending on the type of ticket purchased and line traveled. He also said that the railroad will not eliminate 350 jobs as had been proposed.
“That’s great news, really,” said Gerry Bringmann, vice chairman of the LIRR Commuter’s Council. “The main thing is we didn’t want service cuts and [we wanted] to keep the railroad in state of good repair.”
Tolls will increase by 50 cents at major crossings and by 25 cents at minor crossings.
In the city, the price of a 30-day unlimited ride MetroCard, once threatened to rise to $84, is now proposed to hold at $76 — $6 higher than what it is now. Express bus fares, thought to be jumping from $4 to $6, will settle at $5.
MTA leaders are still pushing to close 164 token booths and post the clerks around the station, and gradually reduce off-peak bus service starting in the middle of 2005. But no layoffs in the city will be necessary, Kelly said.
Kelly also said the financial windfall does not change the budget picture for 2006, when the agency faces a deficit of more than $1 billion. For then, the MTA has proposed slashing service, including closing lines in Oyster Bay, West Hempstead and east of Ronkonkoma to Greenport.
The MTA is holding a public hearing Tuesday at the Hilton Long Island/Huntington Hotel in Melville. The board will vote in December and the fare increases could go into effect in March. The MTA raised fares an average of 25 percent a year ago.