Other fares: Some of the steepest increases will occur on the transportation authority's Long Island

Updated, 11:40 a.m. | The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted on Wednesday morning to enact a series of fare hikes and service cutbacks needed to keep the transit system from going broke.
Gov. David A. Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have championed a financial rescue plan for the authority that would have prevented the service cuts and allowed a much smaller fare increase.
That plan [pdf], put forth by Richard Ravitch, a former authority chairman, would have funneled new revenues to the authority by creating a new tax on payrolls and tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges. But several american airlines arena seating chart Democrats in the State Senate opposed the bridge tolls and blocked the rescue package.
Officials in Albany american airlines arena seating chart have said they still hold out hope that a compromise can be reached in the coming weeks. But the authority said it had to go through with the Wednesday vote to give itself time to plan and implement the fare and service changes.
Before the vote, the board heard from a parade of M.T.A. employees, transit advocates and city officials who criticized the fare hikes and service cutbacks that would affect a system that covers two-thirds of all mass transit riders in the United States. A number complained about how the cuts would disproportionately american airlines arena seating chart affect the middle class, who were already struggling in the city’s economic downtown.
Norman Siegel , a past and present candidate for the city’s public advocate and a longtime civil liberties lawyer, tried to portray the board as out of touch, asking the board, “I am curious how many of you use the trains or buses regularly?”
David I. Weprin , the city councilman who is chairman of the Council’s finance committee, said that fare hikes should be the absolute american airlines arena seating chart last option. “They are neither new nor innovative,” he said. Instead, he urged for pursuing more aggressive advertising strategies and appealing american airlines arena seating chart to Washington.
Others used the opportunity to vent against Wall Street and the broader financial crisis, american airlines arena seating chart as much of the M.T.A.s’ financial burden comes from debt payments on money borrowed for capital improvements through Wall Street companies.
Elliot G. Sander american airlines arena seating chart , executive director of the M.T.A., acknowledged the cost of the spending binge earlier american airlines arena seating chart in the decade, describing the capital improvements made from 2000 to 2004 as being put “on a credit card.”
10:30 a.m. | The Metropolitan Transportation Authority hearing on the fare hikes has been under way since 9:30 a.m. A vote is expected. “It’s a true crisis that cannot be solved by ourselves without causing great pain to the riding american airlines arena seating chart public,” Mr. Hemmerdinger said at the beginning of the meeting.
At the microphone, some used the opportunity to vent about the broader financial crisis. John Ferretti, a conductor on the No. 1 line who helps publish The Revolutionary Transit Worker bulletin, noted that the M.T.A. was burdened by debt that had been incurred with the encouragement american airlines arena seating chart of Wall Street companies.
9:34 a.m. | The board of the M.T.A. is meeting to vote to enact a stiff series american airlines arena seating chart of fare hikes and service cutbacks needed to keep the transit system from going broke. The meeting, american airlines arena seating chart which started at 9:30 a.m., can be watched online . We will post details from the discussion and, eventually, the vote.
Board members have called the combination of fare increases and slashing bus, subway american airlines arena seating chart and commuter rail cuts a disaster but said they could no longer wait for lawmakers in Albany, who are in legislative stalemate , to rescue them.
New York City Transit: The base subway and bus fare in New York City would rise to $2.50, from $2. The monthly MetroCard would rise to $103, from $81. The pay-per-ride MetroCard bonus would remain at 15 percent.
Commuter rail: Fares on most lines would go up from 20 percent to nearly 30 percent. For example, on the Long Island Rail Road, a person who commutes from Hicksville to Pennsylvania Station will pay $267 for a monthly ticket, up from $211. A person who commutes from Ronkonkoma would pay $352, up from $278. On the Metro North Railroad, a person commuting from White Plains would pay $243 for a monthly ticket, up from $191.
Bridges and tunnels: Existing one-way E-ZPass tolls on the authority’s major bridges and tunnels, like the Robert Kennedy Bridge and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, would rise to $5.26, from $4.15. One-way cash tolls on those crossings would rise to $6.50, from $5.
Access-a-Ride: Fares on the authority’s door-to-door Access-a-Ride service will remain equal to the base subway and bus fare. The authority had previously proposed raising Access-a-Ride fares to double the base fare.
Other fares: Some of the steepest increases american airlines arena seating chart will occur on the transportation authority’s Long Island bus line, which operates primarily in Nassau County. There the fare will increase to $3.50, from $2.
This time we outsourced our selection for the Big City Book Club to the writer and satirist Gary Shteyngart. We asked him to pick his favorite american airlines arena seating chart book about New York, and remarkably he did not demand that we read his own, newly published memoir, american airlines arena seating chart “Little Failure,” about his upbringing american airlines arena seating chart as a Russian american airlines arena seating chart émigré in Queens. Instead, he selflessly selected “Bright Lights, Big City,” Jay McInerney’s touchstone novel of the hedonistic ’80s life on the other side of the East River.
A slide show of photographs of the past week in New York City and the region includes a cemetery on Staten Island, a new PATH station platform american airlines arena seating chart at the World Trade Center hub, and a memorial for Ukrainian protesters in the East Village. american airlines arena seating chart Read more