Connecticut Post / March 13, 2007
Metro-North riders face $1 surcharge
Unless lawmakers head off the hike this session, train commuters will be paying $1 surcharges on tickets beginning in 2008, which is almost two years before new rail cars roll into service on Metro-North’s New Haven Line.
Late Friday, Gov. M. Jodi Rell asked state Sens. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, and William Nickerson, R-Greenwich, to co-chair a committee to find an alternative to the $1-a-ride surcharge on Metro-North Railroad tickets. The senators have three weeks to come up with alternatives.
The Connecticut Rail Commuter Council is conducting an online poll on the surcharge to gauge how commuters feel about paying it before new rail cars go into service.
The surcharge was part of 2005 legislation, which authorized $1.3 billion in transportation spending. The program included the purchase of 340 rail cars for the New Haven Line and other upgrades and repairs to the train system.
Many commuters were under the impression the surcharge would not go into effect before the rail cars arrived because of statements at the time by Rell and Department of Transportation officials.
But the authorization to buy the trains said transportation upgrades would be paid by creating a gross-receipts tax on gasoline, which is already in effect, bonds and the $1 surcharge. The surcharge begins on Jan. 1, 2008, and will end in 2015.
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