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DRPA Going Ahead With Bridge Toll Hike
Board Delays Fare Hikes On PATCO High-Speed Line
CAMDEN, N.J. - The Delaware River Port Authority gave PATCO rail riders a gift for the new year. But drivers who cross its bridges will not be so lucky.
The agency voted Wednesday to delay a 10 percent PATCO fare increase from Jan. 1 to July 1.
A toll hike will take place July 1 as scheduled after commissioners spent weeks discussing whether to delay it.
Tolls on the Betsy Ross, Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman and Commodore Barry Bridges will jump to $5 from $4. The DRPA's financial advisers said delaying it could lead to downgrading the agency's credit rating.
PATCO is popular with southern New Jersey residents who work, dine and go to ball games in Philadelphia. The highest round-trip fare is to rise to $6 when the increase takes effect.
Fox 29's Dave Schratwieser reported from the meeting that only Pennsylvania commissioner and union leader John Dougherty voted to delay the toll hike. It was previously reported that the board could consider a 50-cent hike instead.
Before the vote, financial advisers told the board that delaying the toll hike could cost $200 million to $900 million, and that would cause a toll hike up to $8 in 2012.
In other business, the DRPA board approved $194-million overhaul of PATCO's 120-car fleet, which currently has the oldest rail cars in the country.
The contract was awarded to Alstom Transportation of Hornell, N.Y., and $69 million from the Federal Transit Administration will go toward the project. A total rehabilitation of the rail cars will take five years.