Lawmakers say MTA is neglecting Rockland

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is neglecting Rockland County”™s mass transit needs, according to a letter from some county lawmakers  to the MTA”™s Transportation Reinvention Commission.

Legislators Alden Wolfe and Harriet Cornell addressed the commission as part of public hearings on improving service and customer satisfaction. The lawmakers said the MTA should refocus its long-term capital plan to include projects to enhance Rockland commuter access to New York City.

Wolfe said, “Rockland has documented for years the disparity in the tax revenues generated from Rockland, which far exceed annual expenditures by the MTA to serve the county: it”™s a $40 million value gap.”

Cornell, who served on Gov. Andrew Cuomo”™s Mass Transit Task Force, said the MTA has not met customers”™ needs. A number of projects were identified by the task force that would have targeted Rockland County projects, but none of those were adopted by the MTA.

“Rockland, on the west side of the Hudson, is a transportation orphan, long overdue for substantial new investment in our transportation infrastructure,” she said.

To read the lawmakers’ statement click here.