N.Y.-N.J. Port Authority hikes tolls

N.Y.-N.J. Port Authority hikes tolls    The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Board of Commissioners on Friday approved plans to hike tolls at its bridges and tunnels.
   Rates vary according to vehicle size, but a five-axle truck equipped with an EZ-Pass radio frequency identification tag, for example will see its tolls at peak hours climb from $40 to $50. The fare will jump another $10 to $60 on Dec. 2, 2012, and $10 more each year so that by December 2015, the fare will be $90.
   If the same RFID-equipped truck travels at off-peak hours, the fare will be $5 less; $12.50 less on weekends in the evening. If the driver pays cash, they will have to pay $15 more than the peak EZ-Pass rate.
   Cars with EZ pass tags will see peak rates climb from $8 to $9.50 and then increase 75 cents in each following year. The fare on the agency’s commuter railroad PATH, now $1.75, will increase by 25 cents in each of the next four years.
   The agency had wanted even bigger increases, but said it was stepping them back to balance “transportation and economic development needs of region with toll and fare payers' economic realities.”
   The port said it was reducing its 10-year capital plan by $5 billion to $25.1 billion. But it said port infrastructure improvements to rail and roads in the port and raising the roadway of the Bayonne Bridge to allow bigger ships to pass beneath it, will go forward.
Details on other size vehicles can be found here.