The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has voted to raise tolls $1.50 at its bridges and tunnels.
A $0.25 increase on the PATH train system every year for four years is also part of the plan. Cash customers would pay a surcharge of $0.50.
“In the past week, we have worked with Governors Christie and Cuomo to conclude a toll and fare proposal for the Port Authority,” said Chairman David Samson and Vice Chairman Stanley Grayson, in a statement.
The Port Authority had originally announced a hike of $4 on bridges and tunnels this year and another $2 increase in 2014.
The authority had said the huge hikes were necessary to pay for massive capital costs for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, the replacement of the Goethals Bridge between Staten Island in New York and Elizabeth in New Jersey, and many other projects.
Cuomo and Christie are ordering a top-down audit of the authority following a report by the New York state comptroller that showed it paid $86 million in overtime wages in 2010.
The Port Authority is the bi-state agency that oversees the region’s busiest transportation hubs and shipping ports, including Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, Teterboro, and Stewart airports; the George Washington, Goethals, and Bayonne bridges; the Outerbridge Crossing; the Lincoln and Holland tunnels; the PATH train system; and much more.
(Source: MyFoxNY)
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3 Responses
I bet the 9 PA Commissioners who voted for the raise don’t pay the toll when they cross.
Price increases should be directly related to costs. Yes they can increase the toll on a bridge for costs that are related [and needed] for the bridge. Yet it seems a little (at the least) silly that someone who needs to travel often using a certain bridge has to shell out hundreds of dollars to pay for a project that is just as related to him as to a citizen who never needs to use these bridges. ————- In other words one person
Delete (ignore) “In other words” Thank you.