Corzine Contemplates Opposing Bloomberg's Congestion Pricing Tax

New Jersey governor Jon Corzine is contemplating opposing NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg's congestion pricing tax because it would adversely affect New Jersey commuters. Some of the reasons mirror my own concerns, which I wrote when Bloomberg first announced the tax (he calls it a fee, but when you get whacked for $2,000 a year in increased payments to the government, that counts as a tax to me).

Corzine notes that NJ Transit trains are operating at near capacity and there's no way to increase capacity until 2009 at the earliest when all the multilevel cars are in service, and even then, that's only a marginal increase in capacity.

According to NJ Transit, they're buying three flavors of multilevel cars: coach cars (without restrooms) with 142 seats; coach cars (with ADA restrooms) with 132 seats; and cab cars (with ADA restrooms) with 127 seats. NJ Transit would like folks to believe that this is a major increase in capacity, but it is misleading.

Before the introduction of the most recent railcars to the system, NJ Transit mostly operated coaches with 131 seats. They were replaced with ADA compliant cars that seated between 107 and 118. So, it is true that the new multilevel coaches are a significantly higher capacity than the current Comet cars, but are only a modest increase over the cars the Comets were meant to replace. The new multilevel cars essentially provide a better and more comfortable ride (2 seats/wide aisle/2 seats) to the same number that could previously sit on the older cars but without the infamous middle seat (2 seat/aisle/3 seat configuration). The new railcars will be introduced first on the NE Corridor, and the cars it replaces are supposed to replace the oldest cars on the other lines (meaning that unless NJ Transit increases the number of cars per train, we will see a decrease in seats) even as NJ Transit struggles to meet current demand.

Also, it will be several years beyond that before any additional relief is to be had in the form of a new rail tunnel into Midtown, if that comes to fruition.

Bus traffic to the Port Authority is already at capacity, and the only way to increase capacity further is to devote a second lane to bus only traffic, and the Port Authority hasn't decided what to do as the Lincoln Tunnel is operating at capacity as well.

You cannot put a congestion pricing scheme in place when there are no options for the thousands of drivers who feel they have no choice but to drive into the City on a daily basis. A lack of alternative transit options means that those drivers will be stuck driving into the City and paying the tax, regardless of what Bloomberg thinks will come as a benefit years into the future from any congestion pricing scheme.