The appeals courts unanimously allowed the MTA's various fare and toll hikes to stand, overturning two lower courts' decisions. The main points, from NY1:
- City subway and bus fares are $2
- Higher ticket prices on Metro North and the Long Island Rail Road
- Higher tolls on the MTAs nine bridges and tunnels
- Also, the MTA can close 62 token booths
- While the MTA may not have been as forthright with its finances, the MTA did abide by the "letter of the law," technically giving riders enough notice about a fare hike (the justices wrotes "the information in the MTA's notices was neither false nor misleading")
The Straphangers, whose case was that the MTA willfully misled its passengers, will appeal, but since it was a unanimous decision, the Straphangers need special permission to appeal the ruling. Gothamist loves the Straphangers' attorney, Eric Schneiderman, who tells Newsday: "Look, we think that the appellate division was just wrong. What they're essentially saying here if this opinion stands is there's no obligation, unless you write it into the statute, for agencies to tell the truth." Plus, the MTA is just flat out crazy.
Randy Kennedy goes dramatic in the Times: The ruling dealt a potentially mortal blow to the summertime dreams of many New Yorkers, who had followed the case like a kind of lottery drawing over the past two months. They had hoped for two things that are rare in New York governmental bureaucracy: for officials to be caught in a lie, and for money to be refunded as a result.
Kennedy also examines the plight of non working subway phones, which should be remedied as some token booths are being closed and cellphones, our damnable lifeline, don't tend to work in the subways. But he's a tiny bit less flowery.
