Starting today, with summer travel season underway, the price of the train to the plane is changing. The Port Authority’s AirTrain JKF is cutting its fare in half, from $8.50 to $4.25, until Labor Day to encourage passengers to avoid the airport’s roadways which are seeing lots of construction. Thank you, Gov. Hochul, on behalf of New Yorkers and visitors using the rail link.
The PA’s AirTrain Newark is keeping its $8.50 fare, but NJTransit fares climb 15% today. We support the fare hike, and the new dedicated revenue from a corporate transit fee for NJT. Poor service due to Amtrak’s failure to maintain the infrastructure (which we will have much to say shortly) is no reason to withhold money from NJT. So thank you to Gov. Phil Murphy for both the fare increase and the new funding source. But there remains one more thing to fix.
Since the Newark monorail opened on Oct. 21, 2001, NJT has imposed only on passengers to and from Manhattan’s Penn Station an additional fee beyond the published carriage rates. It began at $2, then rose to $4. We started complaining in 2007 and in 2010 it was reduced to 25 cents, but wrongly remains. And today, instead of eliminating the surcharge, it grows to 30 cents.
The AirTrain Newark fares equals the normal fare to the nearest station, North Elizabeth, plus the AirTrain’s $8.50. The Manhattan/North Elizabeth fare is now $8.30, adding $8.50 equals $16.80, but NJT charges $17.10 for the airport. Hochul and Murphy should end this unfair fare hitting people traveling to New York.
