Latest Round Of Toll Hikes Takes Effect Sunday Morning
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- More toll hikes will take effect this weekend at bridges and tunnels in the New York Metro area.
As WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reported, an increase went into effect on Friday MetroNorth and Long Island Rail Road commuters. And beginning at 2 a.m. Sunday, tolls will go up at a number of bridges and tunnels.
To cross the Robert F. Kennedy, Throggs Neck and Bronx-Whitestone bridges, the toll will jump from $6.50 to $7.50.
The Queens-Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels will also increase to $7.50.
Tolls on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island will rise to $15 – an increase $2.
And the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial and Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial bridges will see an increase from $3.25 to $3.75.
E-ZPass holders will get reduced rates at all of the crossings.
ΠFULL BREAKDOWN OF TOLL HIKES
When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the fare hikes in December, the agency met with some heated criticism.
"The damage inflicted on our transit system by Superstorm Sandy has added over $700 million in new debt to the MTA yet despite this blow, we've seen no action to reform the MTA's broken finances," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in December. "A continual reliance on a combination of unprecedented borrowing, and fare hikes every two years is unsustainable -- not when working families in this city continue to struggle to make ends meet."
But MTA board members almost unanimously approved the hikes in December – in the fourth increase in the last five years. Only one member voted against increasing tolls.
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