MTA bigs claim that they either raise fares and cut service or face jail time, but some MTA employees--including executives--say that fares shouldn't be increased.
The MTA's director of governmental affairs, Hilary King, urged New Yorkers to turn out to oppose fare hike.
"The only way it's not going to be implemented is if you express outrage," he was quoted saying in The Daily News.
And there's a lot of room for outrage. At a hearing last week, MTA chieftains gave a litany of proposed service cuts, including eliminated overnight bus lines, reduced frequency of trains, and fewer open token booths. The service cuts are to be paired with price increases that could push a single-ride fare to $3 and a monthly unlimited pass to $100.
The plan has at least one New Yorker calling for a boycott of NYC Transit. Louis Kenny is a 36-year-old Queens man who commutes 2 1/2 hours to his job at a halfway house in the Bronx, and he's organizing a grassroots boycott to protest the MTA's efforts to deliver less for more.
"We can all car pool," Kenny tells the News. "If you can walk to work, walk to work. Take a bike. If you have vacation or sick or personal time, take it. We have to do something."
