Blame it on the Train

by: michael hayne

Fri Apr 16, 2010 at 06:22:41 PM EDT

NJ Transit commuters were dealt a major blow after its board green lighted a plan to increase fares by a whopping 25 percent–the largest fair increase in the history of system–for rail and commuter bus lines. Worse yet, it seems as though the plan includes gutting off peak discounts for commuters who choose to ride during non busy periods. The monstrous fare hike is scheduled to take effect May 1st. 

Would it help if I informed governor Christie that commuters don’t use the train to teach New Jersey’s schoolchildren?

Governor Christie’s madman quest for savings and to fulfill his campaign pledge of bringing NJ out of insolvency with fierce fiscal responsibility seems to overlook the roughly 380,000 hard-working, tax paying citizens of NJ who rely on NJ transit to commute to work on a daily basis. Moreover, in his support for this massive fare hike Gov. Christie fails to see the obvious consequences that are surely follow the fare hike. For example, this tiny little recession thingy in which our country is still very much ensnared. Therefore, this increase is nothing short of a "turnstile tax,"unduly thrown onto the laps of the poor and working-class families of New Jersey and blatantly overlooking the great many NJ residents who have no choice but to take the bus and train to get to where they're going.

For instance, in his blind search for savings Governor Christie may have also overlooked the fact that a major fare increase will lead to less ridership and more motorists on the road, thus creating more pollution and congestion. 

One commuter, for example,  predicted that the fare hike would prompt more people to jump into cars.

"When the cost of gas hit $4 a gallon in 2008, people drove less," he said. "When the cost of transit goes up 25 percent this year, fewer people will ride transit. This will put more commuters onto our highways, which are already over-crowded."

Indeed, commuters who can't absorb this egregious fair hike during already rough economic times might instead choose to drive.

On the fare Hike, Governor Christie had the following to say: 

“I feel badly for those folks that are impacted by it, but this is the mess I was left with and I am not going to clean it up by putting under the rug, which has been done over and over again for the last two decades in New Jersey.”

 In sum, if Governor Christie is so bent on closing the 300 million budget gap and if he really ‘feels bad,’ then perhaps he can take a 25 percent pay cut in his salary. Of course that would be the noble thing to do and nobility and politics go together like Tiger Woods and monogamy.