Straphangers Campaign

As the MTA hurtles towards a huge reorganization, no one knows what the next phase of the MTA will actually look like, or who will get to run what.

Dear Governor, can you make sure you fix the MTA right?

The transportation officials who are in the process of overhauling the entire Bronx bus network warn that simply redrawing colored lines on a map won’t improve service unless the city and state do more to keep cars out of bus lanes.

More wrongheadedness and fealty to the car-owning minority from a Brooklyn Assembly Member.

Transit ridership is soaring, delays are way up, and the MTA has a $14 billion hole in its capital plan. MTA leadership is sounding the alarm, but Albany doesn't seem to notice. With the clock ticking on the year's legislative session, transit advocates are asking Governor Andrew Cuomo to hop out of his muscle car and ride the subway with them to experience the MTA's needs first-hand.

As Albany contemplates paying for the MTA capital program by borrowing as much as $15 billion, it's worth pausing to examine the debt load straphangers are already shouldering. To put it in perspective, the MTA carries more debt than Bolivia, Tanzania, and Luxembourg combined, according to numbers compiled by the Straphangers Campaign. The MTA owes more than at least 30 nations, including several with populations much larger than New York City.

Looking back on 2011, there was a lot more bad news for New York City transit riders than good news. The Straphangers Campaign released its annual list of the ten best and worst events for subway and bus riders, and topping the "worst of" list are three separate ways that Governor Andrew Cuomo has attacked transit funding.

If state legislators don't act to undo the outcome of today's MTA Board meeting, it would mark the second straight year that fares have gone up, which is already a departure from the norm. And it's going to get worse, say Gene Russianoff and the Straphangers Campaign:

The Daily News published an op-ed today that highlights the broad coalition of labor unions, business interests, good government groups, transportation advocates and neighborhood activists who want Albany to adopt the Ravitch Commission's MTA rescue plan.