To the Editor:
While summer draws to a close, you may have missed that the MTA is trying to pull yet another fast one on our commuters here in the Hudson Valley. They have proposed to raise our rates once again at Harriman Train Station and Salisbury Mills, this time by 4% resulting in monthly costs of $317 and $329 respectively. This is on top of the disastrous Congestion Pricing tax and the already existing MTA Payroll Tax, costing our residents even more simply to utilize what is supposed to be a public service. All the while, we get next-to-no service at times that we need them most.
When I confronted MTA Chair Janno Liber back in February the state of our transportation, I was simply told that “We acknowledge the fact that rail service on the west of Hudson stinks” and that “We have no ability to alter that for you, as much as we would like to.”
To sum it up: We get service that “stinks,” get increased expenses for the same “stink” service every year, and then get lectured by the very people overcharging us that they cannot do anything to make our service better but will continue to charge us anyways.
Luckily, the MTA has offered public comment period for everyone in our area until this Sunday Sept. 14, which submit by going to www.mta.info/transparency/public-hearings/2025-fare-changes, calling their hotline at (646) 252-6777, or mailing a letter to MTA Government & Community Relations at 2 Broadway, 16th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10004.
It is time to tell the MTA what truly “stinks.”
Christopher W. Eachus
Assemblymember, 99th District