Within the MTA’s commuter rail system, operated by Metro-North and Long Island Railroad, there is a blatant difference between service in low-income communities of color and service in wealthier white communities. The condition of stations and lack of service in areas like the South Bronx and parts of Brooklyn prevents residents of these, and surrounding neighborhoods, access to the growing number of job opportunities in suburban counties.

While stations in wealthy, white communities are well maintained, and feature lush greenery and other adornments, those in low-income communities of color are virtually abandoned.

• The Melrose Station on Metro-North’s Harlem Line in the South Bronx is in such bad shape that for years many people living near the station either did not know the station existed or thought it was closed. Poor lighting, dark walls, graffiti, the closing of entrances facing the main street (161^st St.), and infrequent service, have made the station dark and unsafe, and deters residents from using the station. It is the worst station in the Metro-North system.

• Other stations such as Metro-North’s Tremont Station (South Bronx), and LIRR’s East New York (East NY, Brooklyn) and Nostrand Ave. (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn) Stations are in similar condition.

In order to be an effective commuter rail station there must be service during rush hours as well as non-traditional hours. Current service to low-income communities of color is pathetically poor.

• At the Melrose and Tremont Stations in the South Bronx, trains only stop twice a day in either direction, at times that would get any employee fired for lateness.

• Because of poor service at the Melrose and Tremont stations, many South Bronx residents are forced to take a Northbound bus or train to the Fordham Station, where the train does stop, in order to get to work.

• Despite its stated goal of improving reverse commuting opportunities, a recent MTA proposal to connect Metro-North trains to Penn Station proposes building stations on the Upper West Side and in Co-op City, all the while bypassing an opportunity to build stations in Harlem and Hunts Point, where the need for reverse commuting is greatest.

Instead of putting money into stations that have long been ignored by the MTA they are investing money in stations that are already well off.

• For Metro-North Stations, the MTA’s proposed Capital Plan allots:

• A $20 million allotment for a Yankee Stadium station in the Capital Plan will not be built without a guarantee that the Yankees will remain. The MTA’s message is clear, the money is for suburbanites to get to a Yankee game, not for South Bronx residents to get to work.

We need to pressure the State Assembly, the Governor, the Senate, and the Mayor to veto the MTA’s Capital Plan in the name of environmental justice.