NEWARK — New Jersey Transit today approved an average 10 percent fare increase for its 380,000 daily train and bus riders, but withdrew or modified some other parts of its original proposal, which had drawn sharp criticism at public hearings around the state last week, reports the New York Times.
The fare increase, which will take effect on April 1, will be the first in a decade for the nation’s third-largest public transit system, which has been run by the agency since 1979.
Several of the agency’s board members said that although they were approving the increase reluctantly, it was long overdue; the system’s farebox revenues fell 29 percent since 1991, adjusted for inflation, while expenses rose 67 percent.
“In the first decade of N.J. Transit’s operations we probably raised fares too often,” said John L. McGoldrick, who has been on the board from the agency’s beginnings as an agglomeration of troubled and bankrupt commuter lines. “But in the second decade of N.J. Transit the fare increases came too infrequently. This is a fair fare increase.”
Tom Wilson, a spokesman for Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco, said that the governor had approved the board’s action this afternoon, just hours after their vote and a day before he officially leaves office at noon on Tuesday. Mr. Wilson said Mr. DiFrancesco believed that the board’s modifications strengthened an already reasonable plan.
Jo Astrid Glading, a spokeswoman for Governor-elect James E. McGreevey, said — as Mr. McGreevey’s office has said since the fare proposal was unveiled on Dec. 11 — that he had not had a chance to review it and would have no comment.
Among transit advocates and officials in Trenton, it was widely speculated that the timing of the increase and its approval by a lame-duck governor were intended to lessen the political fallout. In response to some of the criticisms leveled by scores of speakers at public hearings last week, Jeffrey A. Warsh, the agency’s executive director, had recommended that several of the original proposal’s features be dropped, and board members agreed.
These included lowering the discount for riders 62 and older to 50 percent from the current 55 percent discount; eliminating round-trip, off-peak excursion discounts, and consolidating some bus zones under a higher fare.
At Mr. Warsh’s urging, the board also withdrew its proposal for automatic fare increases in each of the following five years, pegged to the inflation rate. The board can still seek such increases, but members agreed that public hearings must be held first.
The features that were deleted drew some of the most critical comments at six hurriedly scheduled public hearings held simultaneously around the state last Wednesday.
“We take our roles as public stewards seriously, and we heard the public outcry on some of these proposals,” said Mr. Warsh, taking note of the widespread cynicism about the pace of the process.
“We heard loud and clear that some people thought that the automatic inflation increases were a violation of their rights. We heard person after person say that we were railroading it through when we knew all along that it was a very fluid proposal.”
With the changes, the fare increase will generate $38 million in additional revenue for the agency rather than the original projection of $44 million, Mr. Warsh said. The increased revenue is meant to help the agency close an annual deficit estimated at $169 million.
Many of the transit advocates and commuters who turned out for the board’s meeting today applauded the modifications to the plan.
But they generally continued to oppose fare increases without efforts to increase state subsidies or draw more support for transit by increasing the state’s gasoline tax.
“I applaud the board for the sensible changes they have made in the proposal,” said John Weber, a spokesman for New Jersey Citizen Action. “But for many people this 10 percent increase is still a one-way ticket to the poorhouse.” Vito Forlenza, chairman of the New Jersey State Council of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents 5,000 employees of New Jersey Transit bus lines, said the increase was fair and necessary, allowing the agency to more properly spend its capital funds on new equipment.
But repeatedly, speakers said that the idea of fare increases should be deferred to the administration of Mr. McGreevey, who will take office on Jan. 15.