New York MTA: Suburban Passengers Get $7 Per Ride, Subway Riders, A Buck

[marmar]

NY’s MTA Chief said his agency contributes more than $7 to each Long Island Railroad passenger’s ride, compared to just over a dollar per subway ride.

Joe Lhota came out swinging Thursday in defense of the payroll mobility tax struck down by a state court Wednesday.

Lhota held a press conference in Grand Central Terminal to call the ruling ”flawed and erroneous.” He showed up armed with some figures. Suburban rides on Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad receive a bigger subsidy per ride, than NYC subway rides.

.....(snip).....

Now, there are millions of subway riders and only hundreds of thousands of LIRR riders (and we’re tracking down the additional figures to flush out this kind of comparison) but Lhota’s point is that the subsidy isn’t exactly a suburbs-to-city stream of tax money. The biggest winners are the riders of Long Island Rail Road, coincidentally, exactly the people who vote for Nassau County (aka Long Island) Executive, Ed Mangano, the man who filed the lawsuit challenging the mobility tax. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://transportationnation.org/2012/08/23/mta-suburban-passengers-get-7-per-ride-subway-riders-a-buck/

[NYC_SKP]

1. LIRR riders travel further, pay higher fares...

Is this such a shocking thing?

[marmar]

2. He's saying they're subsidized at a higher rate.

But it's the suburban politicos who are doing the most bitching about the tax.

[razakhan]

3. New York MTA: Suburban Passengers Get $7 Per Ride, Subway Riders, A Buck

thanks for the update