No To LIRR Increase

The metrics for ridership on the PW line exceeds those of all the lines on LI. The capacity, the monthly riders, weekend ridership and satisfaction are all high but not so high to justify any rate increase of any size. The only worthwhile reason to raise fares would be to install WiFi on all the trains or reduce or eliminate operational costs.
WiFi services would be a welcome addition. WiFi is currently offered on the trains in the Boston area. It makes delays more agreeable, increases productivity of the riders.
It seems that the current fare increases would go to pay overly generous pensions for workers, health benefits and or basic maintenance not capital improvements on the PW line. Nearly every ticket collector on our line is save for a select few are overweight. It can safely be said some border on morbid obesity. A healthy work crew sustains fewer accidents, lower operating healthcare costs and more efficiency. Many of the ticket collectors are so over weight they block the aisles and often make passing them impossible. Is this indicative of an over stuffed management and bureaucracy? These chubby [and often slovenly dressed] representatives of the LIRR are eating their way into costly healthcare bills or worse early retirement and huge health care bills that the riders will fund. Their massive size slows the ticket collection process or days when there are crowded trains it stops ticket collection completely. This reduces the LIRR revenues. There needs to be a firm stand—that fat and happy does not exist and especially does not exist on the LIRR. If they cannot pass a basic fitness test like every US Navy Sailor must pass every calendar quarter then send them home with out pay and remind them riders want a culture of health.
The clean train campaign is a bad joke. Where are the trash bins in the trains? If the LIRR cared about this then they would do something about it. The ticket takers will not ask, request or tell a passenger to take their feet off the seats. I wear nice clothes as does my wife and really do not care to have to sit on filthy seats because the LIRR ticket takers do not feel like this is something they feel like doing.
The residents of Plandome Manor get less LIRR service than the other three stops on this line by almost 13%. This is because for some unknown reason during week days the trains only stop once an hour at Plandome while other stations receive service twice an hour. This has never been explained by email, ticket taker of others…It only takes a few seconds to stop at this additional station.
This idea of a ticket increase could be agreeable if there was some effort on the any division of the MTA to reduce long term operational costs. These could include driver-less trains. It may be a surprise but the Paris Metro has had conductor less / engineer less trains for well over a decade! The final issue is the trains that depart just after afternoon rush hour when riders, monthly riders will hear sevveral times over the PA that ‘this is rush hour train, it does not stop at…’ Flushing Main Street, etc. A single announcement would suffice prior to departure.
In closing, until the LIRR can show cost control and a culture of health the idea of a fare increase for more of the same or maybe worse service is laughable. I am 100% against a fare increase.
James A.Brodie