Drivers on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to Pay Higher Tolls, Starting Sunday

   On Sunday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will be increasing the E-ZPass toll on major MTA crossings from $6.12 to $6.55 and increasing the Tolls-by-Mail rate from $9.50 to $10.17.

   In addition, expecting to increase revenue by as much as $2 million a year, the cash-strapped MTA has eliminated the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge Carpool Discount, which last year allowed 13,000 Staten Island residents with three or more car passengers to pay $1.70 to cross the bridge.

   “[The managing of the Carpool Discount] is a situation that has become difficult to manage at the agency in a cashless environment. What we count on is for customers to flip a switch on their tag to indicate they have at least three passengers in their vehicle,” said Mark Young, the vice president of the Long Island Railroad. “Needless to say, enforcement of this has become very difficult and challenging, particularly in an open-road tolling environment.”

   What the MTA has not eliminated, however, are the Staten Island resident discount programs, which allow borough residents to cross the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge at a highly discounted rate, although that toll also will increase from $2.75 to $2.95.

   MTA agency officials also hope to generate $24 million of addition revenue when they voted to approve an additional charge for E-ZPass users who fail to properly mount their tags.

  In addition, even without properly mounting their tags, drivers who previously registered their license plates to E-ZPass accounts were still able to receive the lower E-Z Pass rate, however, going forward, drivers who do not properly mount their E-ZPass tags will be charged $8.36 instead of the newly approved $6.55 E-ZPass rate.

   “They go through, they don’t have their tag up, we take a picture of their plate, the plate gets associated with an E-ZPass account and then there’s back-office costs that go with that. In the past, they would then get the better rate,” said Daniel DeCrescenzo, acting president of MTA Bridges and Tunnels.