[PRCo] More on Newark Airport / NJT mainline fares

[Fred Schneider]

To put this into better perspective, the fares between Newark Airport  
and
points south are $5.50 more than those from Newark.  Perhaps that  
reflects
$5.00 for Port Authority and $.50 for the additional distance.  The  
fares
between the airport and New York show a much larger difference, which  
could
be interpreted as between $9.00 (difference to Elizabeth fare) and  
$10.25
(difference to Newark fare).  Given the "best" interpretation, New  
York City
passengers are being soaked for an extra $4.00.

For a passenger like me (or Phil [Phil is Phil Craig]) boarding in  
the Montclair zone, but not
taking advantage of the senior discount, we would buy a $5.00 full fare
ticket from the conductor to Elizabeth and then pay an additional  
$5.00 at
the vending machine next to the fare gates at NJT's EWR [EWR is the  
code for Newark Airport] station.  The other
choice would be to pay the Newark Airport fare of $10.50 at another  
station
or vending machine and receive a form with the magnetic imprint.   
This would
cost us 50 cents more.  If we bought such a ticket from the  
conductor, we
would pay him $5.50 and then pay $5.00 at the machine.

Incidentally, buying two tickets, Newark Airport-Newark and Newark- 
New York
from a machine at Newark Airport is not very complicated.  But you  
only save
$2.75 that way.  Again, the cheapest approach, where you save $4.00,  
is to
already have an Elizabeth-New York ticket ($5.00) with you and then  
just pay
the $5.00 exit fare.  By the way, as Phil has also pointed out, many
passengers are train commuters and already have tickets that are good  
for
travel on either side of the Newark Airport station.

from Jack May posted by Fred Schneider



AND THIS LETTER CAME FROM PHIL CRAIG, WHO BOTH JOHN AND I KNOW. PHIL  
HAS WORKED FOR PATH, MBTA, AND GOD KNOWS WHO ALL.   HE RETIRED FROM  
BECHTEL LAST YEAR FROM A POSITION IN LONDON, ENGLAND AND MOVED BACK  
TO NORTHERN NEW JERSEY.   BOTH HE, JOHN SWINDLER, JACK MAY AND I WERE  
FORMER ERA HEADLIGHTS MAGAZINE EDITORS.  OK, HERE IS WHAT PHIL HAD TO  
SAY:

Fred:

Your correspondent is both wrong and correct  when he says "And  
Fred's suggestion of using an Elizabeth ticket won't work. There are  
fare gates that require a Newark airport ticket to activate."

It does work because you can buy a peak period, off-peak round trip  
or senior citizen's ticket (one-way or round trip) to Elizabeth and  
then get off at the Newark International Airport station.  You then  
can buy a ticket for the monorail ride to the airport for $5.00 from  
vending machines at the station; I did so recently travelling to EWR  
from Upper Montclair, where there are no ticket vending machines at  
the station and the on-train staff sell cash fare receipts (including  
round trips) that are not encoded for the airport station's fare gates.

And, in the other direction, you can buy a ticket at any other the  
three airport terminals that is valid on the monorail as far as the  
airport station on the Northeast Corridor.  They have to sell such  
tickets because many of NJT's passengers have commutation tickets,  
etc. that are valid, for example, for Princeton Junction -  
Pennsylvania Station, New York travel on trains that stop at the EWR  
station.

You can buy an Elizabeth to Pennsylvania Station, New York (one-way  
or round trip, peak, off-peak or senior citizen) ticket from the  
vending machines at the airport.  For example, a one-way peak period  
ticket from Elizabeth to New York Penn Station or vice versa costs  
$5.00.  With that and the $5.00 ticket to ride the airport monorail,  
the informed rider can save $4.00 compared to paying $14.00 for a one- 
way ticket between EWR and NYP.

One thing that is clear is, contrary to the statement that " And it  
is not a fixed surcharge for the Newark airport stop, but a  
proportional charge. Further you go, the higher the surcharge," there  
is no proportional surcharge based on distance for travel to or from  
Newark International Airport.

Regarding dealings between The Port Authority and the taxi and  
limousine companies:  I do not know of any fee paid by the taxi  
companies to pick up or discharge passengers at EWR.  Back in  
1989-1991, when I was commuting weekly to and from St. Louis to work  
on the MetroLink Project I had an arrangement with a local taxi  
company to pick me up at home on Monday mornings and at the airport  
on either Thursday or Friday evenings.  The driver, who was the owner  
of his small company, never indicated that he had to pay anything to  
the PA in conjunction with this.

The issue of parking lot revenues is significant and, where the PA is  
concerned, a well-kept secret.  Clearly, it is one major reason why  
the PA's Aviation Department (despite what the PA says publicly) has  
always worked to put public transportation in a secondary and less- 
competitive position at the three major New York area airports.

One anecdote that may be of interest to you (and which I may have  
told you about in the past) is that, back in the 1960s when I was  
working for what was then The Port of New York Authority and assigned  
to the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH), a meeting was  
called at the old terminal to discuss what the physical requirements  
would be to extend PATH from Newark's Pennsylvania Station through  
the three terminal buildings (A, B and C) then planned airport  
reconstruction.  Edmund A. Duszak, PATH's Assistant General  
Superintendent of Railroad Operations and I attended this meeting.   
We were asked by the Aviation Department's representatives to provide  
information on the minimum curvature, dynamic loading gauge (width as  
well as end and center throw, technically end excess and middle  
ordinate intrusions on the wayside at minimum radius curvature),  
maximum allowable gradient, etc.  EAD asked "Why are you asking for  
this information when PA policy is opposed to extending PATH to  
Newark Airport?"  The answer he received from the Aviation guys was  
"So that we can design the provisions for an automated people mover  
system, including the stations and right-of-way through the three  
terminal buildings so that you never will be able to fit PATH trains  
into the airport in the future." While we provided the requested  
information, when we were driving back to New York, Ed commented to  
me "What a bunch of bastards these guys are.  What they haven't  
figured out is that, if you ripped out their damned two-way people  
mover system, you could build a one-way loop through the airport for  
PATH trains.

Even now, 40 plus years later, the PA's Aviation Department still  
will do whatever it can protect its parking lot revenues.  And that  
includes making sure that there is no direct, one-seat ride available  
from Downtown or Midtown Manhattan to any of its airports.

Phil

AND YOU THINK FRED SCHNEIDER IS CYNICAL?   GUYS, POLITICS CAN BE  
REALLY DIRTY.