Lawmakers Pan Fare Surcharge

STAMFORD (AP) — A group of Fairfield County legislators have asked Gov. M. Jodi Rell to scrap a planned $1-per-ticket surcharge for Metro-North Railroad’s New Haven line.

The lawmakers, who sent their request in a letter to Rell on Tuesday, said they worry that higher rail fares will discourage people from using the trains and could hurt the state’s efforts to ease congestion on Interstate 95.

If the surcharge is eliminated, money to help pay for the rail cars could come from the higher-than-expected revenue from the recent tax increase on gross receipts from the sale of petroleum products, according to one of the plan’s critics, state Sen Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford.

McDonald and state Sen Robert Duff, D-Norwalk, both have submitted proposed bills in the current General Assembly session to repeal the surcharge.

Some lawmakers said they did not like the surcharge when it was proposed, but did not try to change it when the legislature passed the $1.3 billion transportation package because they knew there would be enough time to modify it before 2008.

“It was an idea a number of us weren’t comfortable with,” said state Sen John McKinney, R-Fairfield, ranking member of the transportation committee. “But we didn’t want to upset the entire initiative over [it].”