Public Comment in Opposition to Proposed Bee-Line Fare Increase

January 23, 2013

Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed Bee-Line bus fare increases on behalf of Assemblymember Shelley Mayer.

On behalf the thousands of Yonkers residents who depend on the bus to get to work, I urge you to reject the proposed fare increases before you today. They are unaffordable and cannot be justified simply because the MTA voted for similar fare increases. Using the MTA’s policies to justify Westchester county Bee-Line increases is neither wise nor justified and should not be the governing rule here in Westchester. We are a separate government, and there is simply no reason fare issues cannot be considered separately for Bee-Line and for the MTA.

First, for my constituents in Yonkers, Bee-Line buses are their major – if not only – means of transportation. According to the 2010 American Community Survey, twenty-five percent of the residents of Yonkers rely on public transportation to get to work. The majority of these riders do not have any other way to get to work, school, or to shop. Sixty-two percent of Bee-Line riders do not have access to a car, and sixty-seven percent of the ridership relies on this service to get to and from work. An increase in the fare from $2.25 to $2.50 per ride, or an increase in the unlimited ride card will have a serious impact on their ability to travel.

Bee-Line riders, who are among Westchester’s lowest-paid workforce, cannot be expected to sustain fare increases in the current economic climate. With seventy-eight percent of the Bee-Line ridership earning less than $50,000 a year, and forty-seven percent earning less than $25,000 a year, these riders simply cannot absorb an increase and should not be asked to bear one. In contrast, MTA riders, to whom Bee-Line’s increase is being linked, have significantly higher incomes. Only thirty-eight percent of MTA subway commuters earn less than $50,000 a year and only twelve percent earn less than $25,000 a year. Decisions made in the context of the MTA should not serve as a proxy for evaluation of our own ridership, and their particular concerns.

While I recognize there are challenges to disentangling the Bee-Line fare from the MTA Metrocard, I am confident that modern technology allows separate fare structures. I urge you to maintain the existing fares, rather than accept the slated increases. Our situation deserves its own review, and Westchester’s residents should not be “bootstrapped” into a fare increase simply because the MTA Board, which does not represent these Westchester residents, voted to do so. I urge your rejection of this proposal.

What's New