Tolls on New York-New Jersey crossings rise

Tolls on New York-New Jersey crossings rise The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's budget proposed Thursday would sharply hike tolls for its bridges and tunnels.
   Passenger cars would pay $8 instead of $6 to cross over the agency’s four bridges and two tunnels that connect New Jersey with Manhattan and Staten Island.
   Drivers who use the electronic E-Z Pass system to pay tolls, about 85 percent of total users, would no longer get a discount during peak hours. But there would be a discounts at off-peak hours and an even deeper discount for cars that meet low pollution and high mileage standards.
   Information about truck tolls were not immediately available, but the agency said they would depend on the size of the vehicle.
   The toll increases are part of the agency's plan to boost its annual budget to $5.9 billion in 2008, up from an estimated spend of $5.2 billion in 2007.
   The agency also wants to increase capital spending in its 2007-2016 Capital Plan from $26.1 billion to $29.5 billion. Among other things, it wants to increase its contribution to a new Hudson River passenger rail tunnel from $2 billion to $3 billion, and to spend $3.3 billion to increase capacity on its PATH commuter railroad by 25 percent. The agency is also planning to boost the price of a ride on that railroad from $1.50 to $2, though discounts are available to commuters who buy multiple rides.
   Anthony Coscia, authority chairman, called the rail tunnel “this generation’s George Washington Bridge,” alluding to the suspension bridge connecting Manhattan and New Jersey that the agency built in 1927-1931.
   By encouraging more commuters to ride trains to New Jersey, the agency hopes to reduce road congestion and improve the environment.
   Officials noted security spending has tripled since the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, which the agency built in the 1960s and 1970s and is now helping to rebuild.
   The agency, which took control of Stewart International Airport north of New York City earlier this year, plans to spend up to $500 million to improve the airport over the next decade to increase capacity from 1.5 million to 7 million passengers.
   The agency runs most of the region’s marine terminals and the agency plans to spend $1.98 billion on improvements in 2007-2016, which breaks down as:
   ' Dredging, 32 percent, most of it to deepen the port’s main shipping channels from 45 feet to 50 feet.
   ' Terminal development, 21 percent.
   ' Roadway improvements, 19 percent.
   ' Intermodal projects, 16 percent.
   ' Infrastructure repairs, 11 percent.
   About 13 percent of the cargo handled at the port’s terminals is transported off the port by rail; the agency said its goal is to increase that to 25 percent.
   The $403 million in road improvements “will add lanes, soften curves, and build new roads to improve traffic flow, reduce air emissions, keep drivers safe and ensure that cargo moves into and through the port seamlessly,” the agency said. It include $176 million for improvements along North Avenue, a road that connects the ports of Newark and Elizabeth with the New Jersey Turnpike.
   Earlier this fall the port authority’s Board of Commissioners approved a plan to acquire a portion of a former Army base in Bayonne on which it may build a roll-on/roll-off terminal. In recent weeks that deal seemed to be in danger of falling through.
   First, questions arose about whether the meeting where the deal was approved by the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Agency (BLRA) was legal. Then several companies came forward saying they were willing to top the port authority’s price of $50.5 million for the land. The BLRA said it would consider those offers.
   But this week several members of the agency’s board resigned and its executive director has also announced plans to leave in 90 days.
   Asked about the deal, Coscia said, “At this point we expect everyone to live up to their obligations. I don’t know if there is anything productive to be gained by determining what we would or would not do from a legal standpoint. We signed a contract, we think they did.”