The Poughkeepsie Train Station can be a busy place just minutes before your train. Jeff Holiday and Andy Dieso are getting ready for a day in New York City, and judging by their Rangers uniforms, a hockey game at Madison Square Garden.
“What gave it away?” laughs Dieso.
Going from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central on the Metro-North’s Hudson Line takes, at best, around 95 minutes during peak hours. At off-peak times, the trip is nearly two hours. Holiday and Dieso are from the Catskill area, so when their train returns to Poughkeepsie tonight, they’ll still have an hour drive. But they seem pretty resigned to it.
“This is our option," says Holiday. "We don’t get to get home tonight if we don’t take the Metro-North home.”
Technically, they could have driven to the Garden — but with congestion pricing now in place, they’d have to pay $9 to drive into lower Manhattan south of 60th Street, on top of other tolls and parking. Proponents say the point is to raise money for the MTA and decrease traffic by encouraging people to take trains and buses instead. Hochul wants to make that easier by shortening trips on the Metro-North by up to 15 minutes, and by bringing “super express” trips from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central under 90 minutes.
To do so, some of her ideas include increasing capacity at Poughkeepsie Yard, adding a second track at Spuyten Duyvil, adding a third track to the Harlem Line, connecting the Hudson Line to Penn Station, and putting together a working group between the MTA, NJ Transit, and CT Rail.
Hochul’s announcement came with statements of support from some local leaders, including Poughkeepsie Mayor Yvonne Flowers and Beacon Mayor Lee Kyriacou, both Democrats. But for those who have opposed congestion pricing with protests and lawsuits over the years, Hochul’s proposal isn’t making the toll any easier to tolerate.
State Senator Rob Rolison, a Republican from the 39th District, says congestion pricing is unfair to suburban commuters who can’t avoid driving into Manhattan for work, like police officers and construction workers.
“Of course, the chance for government to make mass transit or any type of transit better makes sense," adds Rolison. "But I don’t think you can necessarily link it to the backs of taxpayers and individuals who have to pay this congestion tax.”
Rolison was part of a press conference on Wednesday where Senate Republicans called on MTA Chair Janno Lieber to resign in part due to congestion pricing. Also there was 38th District Senator Bill Weber, of Rockland County. Weber has cosponsored a bill by Senate Republicans seeking to repeal congestion pricing and conduct an audit of the MTA’s finances.
“We want to have a full audit. We want to have MTA Commissioner Janno Lieber resign, and we want the governor to remove him if he will not resign," says Weber.
Such a bill is unlikely to gain traction in the Democrat-controlled legislature. But congestion pricing did face pushback on both sides of the aisle, especially among lawmakers west of the Hudson River, which doesn’t have a direct train line into Manhattan. Rather, the Port Jervis Line takes Orange and Rockland commuters to Secaucus, where they must ride a New Jersey train to Penn Station.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day says he’s disappointed Hochul’s proposal doesn’t include more for transit west of the Hudson. Hochul has proposed a transit analysis to look at the MTA’s options.
“This has been studied to death…What kind of study are you going to do now?" asks Day. "We are getting the shaft here in Rockland. It’s not fair, it’s not right, and you’re basically spitting in the face of every Rocklander here. And I will not tolerate it without a response.”
Day sent a letter to Hochul’s office with his own ideas to expand transit Wednesday.
Back in Poughkeepsie, Holiday and Dieso don’t seem too bothered by congestion pricing, as they don’t want to deal with driving in the city anyway. They also don’t seem too bothered or impressed by Hochul’s plans to speed up the Metro-North. They usually take Amtrak, but since Amtrak cut back its night schedule, their wish list is pretty simple:
“They need to run more trains, that’s the one thing," says Holiday.
“They need to run the late [Amtrak] train out of New York back north," adds Dieso.
“Make it convenient!" Holiday agrees. "I don’t care if it’s a 90-minute train, or whatever it is, as long as the train’s running.”
