MTA Approves Fare Hikes; MTA Board Member Ditches Meeting To Hang With Sir Paul

While the MTA was deliberating the merits of a massive and costly toll and fare hike along with service reductions, one of the members of the board decided that it was far more important to hang with their boyfriend.

The Board approved the hikes, which will boost the cost of a single ride fare from $2 to $2.50, increases weekly and monthly Metrocards, eliminates service on several little used subway lines, and reduces service on a number of local bus routes all to help close a billion dollar deficit.

"There are 45 hours left before this disaster goes into effect," board member Allen Cappelli said.

The cost of a seven-day unlimited card would jump $6, to $31, and a 14-day unlimited pass would increase $12, to $59. Bridge and tunnel cash tolls on major crossings will leap from $5 one way to $6.50, and from $2.50 to $3.25 on the smaller crossings.

Riders will fork over new subway and bus fares on May 31, and new bridge and tunnel tolls will take effect in July barring a last-minute rescue.

In following months, the W and Z subway lines will be eliminated, the G and M will be shortened and dozens of bus routes will vanish or be reduced.

In all, 3,000 jobs will be cut and 1,100 workers laid off.

While that was going on, Nancy Shevell was out and about hanging with her boyfriend, Sir Paul McCartney.

Shevell, who sits on the agency's finance committee, ditched the panel's meeting approving massive fare hikes and instead soaked up the world premiere of "The Boat that Rocked" in London on the arm of beau Paul McCartney.

The film, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emma Thompson, is about British "pi rate radio" in the 1960s, when stations took advantage of a legal loophole and broadcast pop music into the country from ships anchored at sea.

Shevell was photographed (above) entering the glitzy premiere with McCartney at Odeon theater in Leicester Square. Crowds watched as she and McCartney entered the premiere, which featured models sporting '60s-style heart- shaped sunglasses.

Board members can not cast absentee votes, an MTA official said.

This isn't the first vote she's missed either. She missed a key vote in 2008 to go be with McCartney during his tour of Israel.

It seems that the MTA board members have been out and about for far too long - ignoring their fiscal responsibilities to manage the affairs of the board and to provide a valuable service to the commuters who rely on the MTA to get them to work every day. Then again, maybe more board members should take up Shevell's interest in McCartney since it would prevent the board from imposing such massive hikes.