(The following column by Khurram Saeed appeared on the Lower Hudson Journal News website on January 21, 2009.)
NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been talking about making changes that could affect train service in Rockland.
It’s been warning riders of double-digit fare increases, laying out doomsday scenarios to the public and lobbying politicians in Albany.
But if the MTA, which includes Metro-North Railroad, wants to do anything meaningful west of the Hudson – that is, in Rockland or Orange – it needs to start talking with New Jersey Transit. Right now, they’re not reading the same script.
Metro-North contracts with NJ Transit to provide commuter rail service in Rockland and Orange.
For example, the section on the MTA Web site that lists all of the proposed service changes states that weekend service on the Pascack Valley line “will be reduced.”
Not so fast, says NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel.
The weekend service, which was launched to much fanfare in October 2006 and was expanded last summer, is jointly operated by both Metro-North and NJ Transit.
“We’re not prepared to announce any reduction in service on the Pascack Valley line on the weekend,” Stessel said yesterday.
While Stessel said he understood Metro-North was in a difficult financial position, getting rid of weekend service “is not under consideration” because building ridership on a new rail service requires there to be consistency.
The MTA is looking at a multitude of ways to pay for a $1.4 billion deficit, and that means significant service cuts on New York City buses and trains, as well as higher fares and tolls on the nine MTA bridges and tunnels. It also wants to raise fares more than 20 percent for Metro-North riders.
Commuters who travel on the Pascack Valley line from Rockland to Penn Station in New York City could see their monthly fares rise from $224 to $276. Those riding on the Port Jervis line from Sloatsburg to Penn Station would pay $331, up from $273, under the proposal.
Under a long-standing arrangement, NJ Transit owns the Suffern train station – and the adjoining railyard – so riders from there are not affected by Metro-North’s fare hikes, but they do pay more when NJ Transit raises its prices.
Also, those who take the Haverstraw-Ossining ferry could see one-way fare go up as much as $1.
The MTA will hold a public hearing on its proposal in Rockland at 6 p.m., Feb. 2, at the Palisades Center mall in West Nyack.
Back to the MTA’s Web site.
Gedaliah Friedenberg, who lives in Spring Valley and rides the train out of Suffern, was visiting the site and saw that express trains on the Port Jervis line would make local stops in New Jersey, which could add up to 20 minutes to an already long trip.
“Word has been spreading among the Port Jervis line commuters and people are really upset that this is even being considered,” Friedenberg said.
Metro-North spokesman Dan Brucker said it looked like only an express train that begins in Orange, and doesn’t stop in Rockland or New Jersey until the end of the line would be affected, as well the express train back to Orange.
“We have to work out the logistics,” Brucker said yesterday.
By having the train stop in New Jersey, Metro-North and NJ Transit would share its costs in a formula passed on passenger miles.
Stessel said the agencies have had only preliminary discussions, and NJ Transit would have to see if there would be enough riders to justify the change and added cost.
The state Legislature is studying a proposal by the Ravitch Commission that would avoid such steep fare and toll increases, but would require hikes nonetheless as well as several new fees.