May 23, 2010

People are complaining that their commuter train fares are being increased while the railroad company is reducing service. This complaint is mainly heard from commuters coming to New York from New Jersey.

Those poor people are upset that now they might have to stand on their train rides. Life is so hard!

I used to take the subway to work to Manhattan and back in the afternoons. Very, very rarely I got lucky and found a seat. More often than not I stood all the way for a 45 to 55 minute ride, being pushed and shoved.

There was no point to complain because there was no solution. Well, there was, either drive to work or don't go to work or work somewhere else.

I am favoring the work somewhere else solution.

In my opinion, people who live outside of the state should not be allowed to work across state lines. People who come to work in New York from neighboring new Jersey and Connecticut want all the advantages they can get.

Not being a New York State and City resident has all kinds of tax benefits. And that is the main reason they like this way of life. They don't pay taxes but demand the services and loudly complain when not getting them.

Good country America!

Many of my former colleagues were New Jersey residents who took full advantage of the tax benefits. Twenty, thirty years working such a way added up to a nice chunk of money saved.

At one point after September 11 we were temporarily transferred to work in New Jersey since our offices were at the World Trade Center. These people were shocked. Now, they had to pay real taxes being Jersey residents and working in that state.

And, when years ago the City introduced a Commuter Tax for these people, they were incensed and felt insulted. They cried discrimination. I think that tax since ceased to exist.

So, should I feel sorry for the poor unappreciated commuter who is coming to New York from his or her suburban community with the nice houses and white picket fences?

No, I don't feel sorry for them. Stay the hell where they live or move here where their livelihood is. That is mt simple solution.

Don't misunderstand, I am not against commuters. I have no problem with New Yorkers working In New York. However, I am against out of staters coming in, taking work away from locals and then complaining for the lack of services.

On another thought, people are so pampered that any reduction of certain services create an uproar.

New York City has 656 miles of subway and more than 200 local bus routes. Most of these services operate 24 hours a day with frequency of service adjusted to particular time of the day.

In many places bus routes correspond with the subway routes.

In most of the cities in the world subway service stops late at night and then resumes early in the morning. That is because of economics, maintenance and just pure common sense. But in New York City God forbids to talk about such a thing.

They are spending a fortune running empty and unsafe trains through the nights so some night owls or late night workers can get home. Surface buses would do the same job a lot cheaper but it seems that the unions are again interfering with running the business.

And not for the better but for their own interests.