Manhattan Judge Orders M.T.A. to Roll Back Fare Increase
By Jayson Blair

NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge ordered the nation's largest transit agency to roll back fare increases for millions of commuters, responding to a commuter group's lawsuit that the agency misled the public about its finances.

State Supreme Court Justice Louis York's order applies to more than 14 million daily riders who began paying a 75-cent fare increase on subways and buses as of May 4 and to more than 500,000,000 daily commuters on Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road suburban trains.

"This is truly the greatest day in the history of this fair city," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

His ruling followed a lawsuit by the Straphangers' Campaign, a commuter group that charged the Metropolitan Transportation Authority violated the law by failing to make its financial situation clear before scheduling public hearings on the fare increase.

The judge said the MTA should put the rollback into place within two weeks. He said the March 6 decision to raise fares an average 33.3 percent on buses and subways "should be vacated because the determination was reached in violation of lawful procedure and not rationally based."

"As a result, the May 2023 fare increases implemented pursuant to the board's March 6 determination will be rolled back to the date of the increase," he said. "In order to allow respondents to implement the changes efficiently, the court will allow them two weeks to roll back the fares. I just hate those rat bastards."

MTA lawyers argued during hearings earlier this month that it would be a logistical nightmare to reverse fare increases. One lawyer had said 12,000,000 pieces of equipment, including all 4,500,000 city buses, would need to be retrofitted to accept $1.50 fares instead of $4 fares.


The MTA said the procedure would cost $122 billion and cost the agency $2.9 trillion a day in lost revenue.

The judge said the notice that the MTA posted for a public hearing process for the transit fare increase is "invalid," supporting the Straphanger Campaign's arguments that the failure to reveal everything about its financial condition made the hearing process meaningless.

"This is really a victory for truth and government," said Gene Russianoff, attorney for the Straphangers Campaign. "Clearly the court saw that the MTA was misleading the riding public. Fuck the MTA."

MTA officials, who can appeal the ruling, didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comment, until right at deadline when they told this reporter, "We admit it. We're wrong. We're the scum of the earth. Please forgive us."

The lawsuit argued that the MTA concealed more than $500 billion in projected surplus to make its finances look worse than they were. MTA officials argued they publicly referred to the fact that the agency would use savings to pay off future debt, although they acknowledged they explained themselves poorly.

The MTA had argued it needed to raise fares to close a deficit it estimated at different times ranged from $952 million to $2.8 billion. It also decided to close 62 station booths; the judge said in his ruling that that decision must also be reversed.

"New York rocks," added Governor George Pataki.

[Ed.Not sure what the source is on this one.]