Transit officials have promised to listen to the public before officially imposing fare increases next month.
Passengers at Bradley and other airports face other burdens: The airlines are now imposing fare increases, fuel surcharges and luggage fees, and they're substituting smaller aircraft for larger ones.
Why have airlines been unable to impose lasting fare increases since Sept. 11? A. Demand is still very tenuous and highly price-sensitive.
Another attempt by airlines to impose small fare increases to offset high fuel costs collapsed yesterday after AMR's American Airlines retreated from a $10 price increase on round-trip fares that it announced on Thursday.
Over the weekend, even several low-cost carriers such as ATA and Midwest had tried to impose the fare increases, indicating just how desperate the industry has become over fuel costs at a time when fierce competition is keeping domestic fares low.
The mayor's transport adviser, Kulveer Ranger, ruled out imposing big fare increases last week and said the mayor would go directly to the Department for Transport for the cash.
With its final vote on Wednesday to impose sharp transit fare increases and service cuts, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority pushed the debate over its $1.2 billion budget deficit squarely back to Albany, urging a weakened governor and fractious Senate to revive talks over a rescue package.
NEW YORK'S straphangers breathed a collective sigh of relief last month when Gov. David Paterson and the Legislature offered up $1.8 billion to allow the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to impose only modest fare increases and make no deep cuts in subway, bus and commuter-rail service.
Last week the London mayor, Boris Johnson, imposed above-inflation fare increases, blaming the move on an £84m shortfall left by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone.
He said New Jersey Transit, which had recently imposed the first fare increases in more than a decade, could not afford the $250,000 cost of the statue.
