With lawmakers looking to find some way to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, WCBSTV has learned a compromise plan to put tolls on the East River bridges is making headway in Albany.
Lawmakers want the new tolls put on the bridges to equal the cost of a subway ride.
Sources tell CBS 2 HD that the latest compromise to find cash for the MTA is to limit the cost of tolls. Instead of the $5 currently charged at the MTA’s other bridges and tunnels, lawmakers are eyeing a proposal to have the new fee charged on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and 59th Street bridges equal whatever straphangers pay — currently $2 a ride.
The disclosure came as MTA officials traveled to Albany Tuesday to lobby the Legislature for money.
The MTA has said if it doesn’t get money from Albany it will have to raise fares by 23 percent and enact Draconian service cuts. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said something has to be done.
“The board’s actions are unacceptable,” Silver said. “The fare increases are unacceptable. The service cutbacks are unacceptable.”
Lawmakers hope they’ll have an MTA bailout plan worked out by the middle of March.
This comes as the MTA announced plans Tuesday to reduce weekend service on several train lines. Lines affected include: A, D, F, G, J, M, N, Q, and R lines. They’ll go from running every eight minutes to every 10 minutes.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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4 Responses
How about cutting the budget of the MTA cutting in half to a third all of their middle and upper management and stop funding all of their employee’s Blackberrys? Why oh why do politicians think that we have seemingly bottomless pockets?
If it’s government or bureaucratic, it doesn’t know how to reduce a budget, only increase it.
The Government always takes care of itself first!
Im just curious where exactly they would install the toll booths? there is barely enough room to get onto the bridge as it is