MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-04-07 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Trust the MTA. The MTA is your friend
|
Bronxites Are Excluded from Metro-North Trains, As Congestion Pricing
Looms
Byline: Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press in the Bronx: News Analysis
BRONX, N.Y., March 30 -- As New York government officials consider
imposing a tax for driving into lower Manhattan, many of the Metro-North
Railroad trains which stop to let off suburban riders in the Bronx refuse
to take Bronx passengers on board for the last leg of the trip into Grand
Central Station. When these trains stop at the Fordham Road station in the
Bronx, the public address system announces that they are "discharge only"
and that anyone who insists on getting on will be charged the highest
possible fare. Among those excluded or over-charged are Bronxites who
have paid over $140 for a monthly pass from Fordham to Grand Central.
This longstanding policy was questioned on March 26 at a
public hearing of the Metro-North Railroad president Peter
Cannito. Along with questions about allowing more bicycles on
the MNRR trains and better policing late-night drunken riders,
Inner City Press asked Mr. Cannito to explain why the company
he runs, at least until later this year, denies its services
to pre-paid customers in the Bronx. While several of the other
MNRR board members present seem surprised that this takes
place, Cannito said it is a product of an operating agreement
between the states of Connecticut and New York. He said that
since Connecticut pays 65% of the New Haven line's costs, they
have requested that no passengers be allowed on the New Haven
lines trains which stop to discharge passengers in the Bronx.
When Inner City Press questioned the social, racial and
environmental justice logic of keeping paying customers from
The Bronx from riding the suburban commuter trains even when
they have paid, Cannito said, even if "you don't accept it,"
he had explained it. Another board member interjected that
what Inner City Press had raised showed the "regionality
of service" which is "something we are keenly aware of and
working toward."
Further inquiry by Inner City Press has revealed as
an explanation of the exclusion of Bronxites that the
Connecticut and New York lines of the Metro-North system
don't have in place a system to invoice each other for riders
like Bronxites riding New Haven line trains south into
Manhattan. The bureaucratic fix appears simple, unless an
implicit selling-point of the New Haven line is the exclusion
of more "urban" riders. While some intrepid Bronxites
have found a way around the MNRR's policy of exclusion -- by
buying a holding a ticket from Westchester to Grand Central,
as if they had gotten on further north -- these games are not
accessible to everyone, cost more and should not be necessary,
particularly with congestion pricing looming.
Metro-North train with empty seats, Bronxites not shown
Cannito offered a single, illusory concession. He said that
MNRR is considering whether having a middle platform at the
Fordham station would allow additional express trains from
White Plains to stop at Fordham. But a cursory visit to the
station shows that there is no room for a middle platform,
and little chance of expanding the station outward, either
into Fordham University where a dorm is being constructed,
or out onto Webster Avenue.
Also at the hearing, a bicycle enthusiast derided late night
drunken riders who, he said, often vomit in the cars. Just
as a designated quiet car had been proposed, he suggested
what he called a "designated pukers car."
The evening's final witness said she had observed phone
sex and, to be diplomatic, onanism on a recent late night
ride. (She specified that the caller sprawled out across
three seats and while touching his groin with one hand, cell
phone in the other.) She said that "as a woman of color," it
made her feel unsafe. One wag in the back of the MTA meeting
room muttered, "And everyone else likes it?" What Metro-North
will do about any of these issues remains to be seen.
--
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