The four percent increase in price of the Railroad makes driving a car more enticing, but may also lead to a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions. The Long Island Railroad’s 355,000 daily riders will pay up to $15 more a month in ticket prices starting March 19th after a fare increase was approved last month.
The price hike was approved on January 25th adding up to 50¢ per way, according to MTA.info.
“Well financially, no one really likes prices increasing but if you look at it from an environmental standpoint, it’s a bad decision because if they increase the prices of the trains and public transportation, people might start wanting to drive more,” Danny Li, a student from New York Institute of Technology, said. “If they wanted to do a smart thing, they should have decreased the price instead. If they decrease the price, they could get a lot more people to take public transportation and then they might even get new customers because of the price decrease.”
In Long Island, a gallon of gas is around $2.19. Penn Station is approximately sixty miles from Stony Brook. The average mile per gallon is twenty-five miles, resulting an average car to use around five gallons of gas driving to and from Manhattan. The total cost of gas would be $11, whereas the average one way ticket to Penn Station from Long Island is $13. During rush hour, tickets purchased from Huntington to Port Jefferson Stations surge up to $18.25 one-way, and $36.50 round trip.
“Well obviously this will inconvenience me,” Li said, “If the price keeps going up, maybe driving will be the better option sooner or later.”
2016 was the year the MTA saw a ridership decrease since 2009. In subway rides alone, there was a decline of approximately six million riders. Although this may be a small decrease compared to the yearly billions of MTA passengers, the decrease says a lot. Subways are overcrowded and prices of public transportation are going up, according to an annual MTA ridership report.
Driving a car is becoming increasingly more attractive as a way of saving money, but for the many riders that are making that choice, they are failing to save the environment. The Long Island Railroad produces 0.34 pounds of greenhouse gases (GHG) according to their website. The average car, according to The Union of Concerned Scientists, “24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases for every gallon of gas.”A single driver therefore, driving from Stony Brook to Penn Station, creates more than 600 pounds of GHG.
If MTA fares continue to rise, millions of GHG may soon be reaching the atmosphere. While a 4% increase may not hurt riders wallets, the idea of taking another form of transportation seems more economic.
“I guess it’s reasonable that the prices are going up because everything else is going up. Four percent over the span of four years isn’t too drastic,” HLing Liu, a frequent rider of the LIRR, said. “I used to commute to work every single day and that cost me $350 dollars every month. It’s already too expensive, but I guess I understand because you are paying for the convenience, opposed to cheaper options such as the bus, where it would take over three hours to get to the city.” Liu has been riding the LIRR for the past eight years.
“The MTA is focused on keeping our fares affordable for low-income riders and frequent riders, and on how we can keep necessary scheduled increases as small and as predictable as possible,” MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas Prendergast said in an MTA press release on January 25th.
“Keeping fares and tolls down was possible because of the continued operational efficiencies and ways we have reduced costs while adding service and capacity along our busiest corridor.”
The Long Island Railroad offers an ecological transportation option for the over 7 million Long Island residents, from Penn Station all the way to Montauk.
“We need an affordable ticket to get home,” Kayla Tarolli, a student from the Fashion Institute of Technology said. “It’s a necessity.”
DOROTHY MAI 