NY/NJ Port Authority Approves Toll Hikes
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has approved a plan to raise tolls at tunnels and bridges into New York City, in part to fund the reconstruction of the World Trade Center.
Tolls will increase in September and continue to climb each year through 2015.
Truckers using E-ZPass will pay $2 more per axle next month, plus an additional $2 per axle increase each year from 2012-15, the Port Authority said.
Truckers paying cash will have to pay a $3 per axle penalty.
Tolls will also increase for cars. Drivers using E-ZPass will pay $1.50 more in September plus another 75 cents each year from 2012-15. Drivers using cash will pay an extra $2, rounded up to the nearest whole dollar.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and the three bridges between New Jersey and Staten Island.
American Trucking Associations CEO Bill Graves called on Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Andrew Cuomo of New York to reconsider the toll hike.
“We urge you to veto this proposal, which will not only devastate trucking companies who serve the New York City area, but will also increase the cost of doing business in a region already regarded as among the most expensive in the nation,” Graves said in an Aug. 25 letter to the two governors. “Even more distressing is that a majority of new revenues will subsidize projects with no benefit to those paying the tolls.”
