Toonces wrote:
I know this isn't new, but I'm curious as to why almost all day on weekends is considered "peak"?

craigslistdiva wrote:
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NYWaterway was conducting a survey last week to see if people would continue to pay little more at $4 a ride after the PA deal is done and WTC line is fixed.

Is this survey available online?

NYWaterway was conducting a survey last week to see if people would continue to pay little more at $4 a ride after the PA deal is done and WTC line is fixed.

Bubble_Tea wrote:
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heights wrote:
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Fomite wrote:
So we will be paying more but we still get the same crowded trains that stop in Hoboken with no additional weekend service and no weekend WTC. great.

This was all pre-established back in 2011. Instead of raising the fare $1 they raised it 25 cents a year for only a 4 year span.

$2.50 ferry on weekend is much better than WTC path.

But the weekend Hoboken stop on the way to 33rd is painful.

heights wrote:
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Fomite wrote:
So we will be paying more but we still get the same crowded trains that stop in Hoboken with no additional weekend service and no weekend WTC. great.

This was all pre-established back in 2011. Instead of raising the fare $1 they raised it 25 cents a year for only a 4 year span.

Fomite wrote:
So we will be paying more but we still get the same crowded trains that stop in Hoboken with no additional weekend service and no weekend WTC. great.

mastablasta wrote:
The PATH fares go up tomorrow. So, be sure to fill your smartlink card to the max before you pay more tomorrow.

tommyc_37 wrote:
Everything about the Port Authority truly sucks. Will this new WTC Path station be connected to the new Fulton Street Transit Center?

Stringer wrote:
Congressional reports slaps Port Authority's handling of toll hike

By Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger
September 18, 2013 at 7:50 PM

Officials for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said a report by Congress that criticized the implementation of a 2011 toll hike has been "carefully considered" by the agency and that several reforms were put in place after the toll hike but before the report was made public last week.

Port Authority executive director Patrick Foye said new bylaws were adopted in June 2012 that would provide more transparency and public input the next time the agency raises tolls.

For example, Foye said, the bylaws call for at least 10 days' notice of public hearings in advance of a proposed toll hike, the presence of at least one Port Authority commissioner at each hearing and the dissemination of "maximum public information" regarding the amount and reason for any proposed hike.

The report was made public last week by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

"In setting tolls, bi-state tolling authorities are primarily influenced by debt obligations and maintain specific operating revenues to repair their debt," the report states. "A federal statute requiring bridge tolls to be 'just and reasonable' has less influence on tolling decision, in part, because no federal agency has the authority to enforce the standard."

The GAO report also looked into practices at three other bi-state tolling agencies: the Delaware River Port Authority and the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, both involving New Jersey and Pennsylvania; and the Delaware River and Bay Authority, involving New Jersey and Delaware. The report offered similar critiques of those agencies, attributing their lack of public accountability to their uncommon status as bi-state agencies that, while chartered by Congress and headed by officials appointed by their respective governors, operate as neither state nor federal entities.

The GAO report was requested following the toll hike by the late U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who died in June. Lautenberg had been an outspoken critic of the Port Authority and of New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, who shares control of the agency with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo is a Democrat, and critics of the toll hike from New York State have tended to be Republicans.

Under the August 2012 toll hike, peak tolls have risen from $8 for all cars, to $10.25 for E-ZPass users and $13 for cash customers. Additional increments will take effect this December, and in each of the two following years, before tolls will top out at $12.50 for E-ZPass subscribers and $15 for cash customers in December 2015.

Port Authority chairman David Samson, a Christie appointee who led the board at the time the hike was approved, said the agency acted in accordance with all bylaws in place at the time.

Foye was appointed by Cuomo after the hike was imposed.

"In hindsight, all sorts of alternative procedures could have been followed," Samson said following today's regular board meeting. "We're satisfied that the procedures that we followed at the time were adequate and were consistent with the requirements that were in effect. And, as the executive director points out, we changed the bylaws to reflect a new and vigorous process."

When proposing the toll hike in August 2011, the agency insisted it was necessary in light of recession-related revenue dips and a long list of pressing capital projects.

Since the toll hike, Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey and Republicans in New York have sponsored legislation to increase oversight and transparency at the Port Authority, though none has been approved so far. Port Authority legislation must be approved by lawmakers in both states then signed by both governors, whose authority over the agency would be watered down considerably by having to share it with the legislatures.

Christie vetoed a post-toll hike bill that made it to his desk in July 2012, when he accused lawmakers of being politically motivated, and he and the Port Authority insisted that reforms at the agency were already being put in place.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013 ... s_tolls.html#incart_river

Toonces wrote:
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hero69 wrote:
A quarter increase for the PATH is outrageous. Someone, quick, call the doctor. I think I'm having a heartache. Elizabeth, I think I'm coming to join you.

It may seem trivial, until you multiply it out and realize that that quarter per ride increase just raised your yearly commute cost by ~$130.

CatDog wrote:
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Adonis wrote:
What's there to complain about regarding the fare increase? How selfish can you be. Don't you realize that not only is your money going towards the job stimulus program for the construction unions but it also is paying for the votes that people like Senator Menedez and Senator Lautenberg bought for themselves when pushing for the Port Authority spending projects. I mean come on, a 2 for 1 deal. You are not supposed to complain about that!

Since the Port Authority is overseen by the states of NJ and NY, and specifically by our two governors, and the WTC is in NYC, Lautenberg and Menendez had nothing to do with it.


One of these days, we'll get the PATH taken away from the PA and given to NJT or MTA.

hero69 wrote:
A quarter increase for the PATH is outrageous. Someone, quick, call the doctor. I think I'm having a heartache. Elizabeth, I think I'm coming to join you.

Adonis wrote:
What's there to complain about regarding the fare increase? How selfish can you be. Don't you realize that not only is your money going towards the job stimulus program for the construction unions but it also is paying for the votes that people like Senator Menedez and Senator Lautenberg bought for themselves when pushing for the Port Authority spending projects. I mean come on, a 2 for 1 deal. You are not supposed to complain about that!