Posted on 11/10/2008 11:16:38 AM PST by raccoonradio
(BUT tolls within 128 to be raised??)
Gov. Deval Patrick is planning to dismantle the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to improve efficiency and try to mollify public complaints about planned toll hikes, two government officials said Monday.
(snip)
One government official said dismantling the Pike "would keep a promise to the taxpayers,
(snip; but...)
According to the plan, tolls likely will be raised inside Route 128 to pay off debt associated with Big Dig. Toll booths outside Route 128 will be eliminated, except in West Stockbridge near the New York border and in Sturbridge, close to the Connecticut border.
(Excerpt) Read more at wbztv.com ...
howie list ping: free the pike! (with NO exceptions though)
I’ll believe it when I see it.....and, unfortunately, I only take the Pike from Cambridge to Rte 128...or Cambridge to I-84...or Cambridge to the NY border.
So, what he’s saying is that ElectricStrawberry will not only be paying all the tolls on the Pike...but they will be going up.
Great...
Grew up in that area and there were tolls for as long as I go back and that’s a while. I remember when the Mass Pike “extension” was put in to extend it into downtown Boston.
Robert Moses of NY pioneered the use of tolls as a political/financial empire. When he established, I think it was the port authority, he kept all the dimes and quarters and was beholden to no one. I’m sure others have trod in his footsteps - except it ain’t dimes and quarters anymore!
Note, by law all toll roads were suppose to be free. But thanks to some rino slipping, a clause into the highway bill about demonstration projects. You have the current mess, many think it was the dirt bag governor of Indiana that did it, he sold the state highway as soon as he could and attempted to sell other road until he got a large hunk of the republicans voted out of office.
“It’s a Hack-O-Rama!”
I frequently drive from Hartford to Albany via the Mass Pike. There is presently no charge for the 90 minute portion in Massachussetts.
However, there is a person handing out the toll tickets on the entry end and a person collecting the tickets on the exit end of the toll road. Reportedly, their annual salaries are as high as $80K.
This is how Massachussetts “creates” jobs.
but remember tolls would still be in sturbridge & west stockbridge if either applies to you, AND would be boosted inside of 128, so I don’t
know how much you’d save.
Bill Weld, RINO indeed, but he freed the western MA exits and
hoped to do the rest. He also, for a time, made car
registration free if the reg. was in good standing
I drive from Springfield (exit 6) to Worcester (exit 10) Monday through Friday.
looked up; Sturbridge is exit 9. You may be saving some
money but it won’t be totally free, as Sturbridge will
still have tolls under the plan.
Plus full teamsters union benefits.
I think you would have to use the exit to get charged the toll. I think the idea is to continue charging people from Connecticut and New York. I could be wrong though.
OMG! WHAT? Did hell freeze over and I missed it?????? LOL!
ping
Will Fast Eddie follow suit.
Clearly Deval got his telephone call from Obama. Look for a moving van in front of Deval’s house.
The governor drops the tolls, the citizens love him, and he flies off to D.C. The Mass pols are left with a drop in revenue and no way to make it up without re-instating the tolls. Brilliant.
btw I was wrong when I said that there would be tolls in
Sturbridge—there WILL be some, but only for those coming from CT on I-84 (and vice versa), whereas I believe if
you’re on the reg. pike itself, no tolls. They were saying on radio that if your commute was, say, Framingham to Springfield, no tolls
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