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January 24, 2001 11:56 AM, EST

Crossing the Hudson River into New York City will take as much as a 75% bigger bite from truckers’ wallets if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s proposed toll increase goes through.

Because New York City is also a transit point for truck traffic going into and out of New England, the toll increase could affect trucking in surrounding states, industry officials said.

Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, called the toll increase “an outrage.” She said that some of NJMTA’s small carrier owners “guesstimated” that the plan would cost them an additional $70,000 in operational costs. “Large carriers could see as much as $300,000 more,” she said.

The Port Authority operates and collects tolls for the Hudson and Lincoln Tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and the Staten Island spans – the Bayonne and Goethals Bridges and the Outerbridge Crossing.

For the full story, see the Jan. 22 print edition of Transport Topics. .