MTA

The state's top transportation officials delivered some tough news to the construction industry Friday: Public agencies are so cash-strapped they don't even have enough money to maintain existing infrastructure.

Outside Cooper Union yesterday evening, the sidewalks were packed with news cameras, security squads, political campaigners and activists pressing passersby with their plans for the MTA. Inside, the transit authority held the first of ten mandated public hearings on its proposed fare and toll hikes. Though attendance was sparse, the citizens who lined up to speak in all but unanimous opposition to the fare hike spared no venom for whichever target they chose, the MTA or the state government.

John Petro and Dan Morris at the Drum Major Institute have a great op-ed in the Albany Times-Union today, asking the candidates for governor how they plan to deal with New York's transit funding crisis. With the largest MTA service cut in a generation barely behind us, the third fare hike in three years looming in January, a $9 billion hole in the agency's five-year capital plan, and a huge pile of debt that threatens to make future fare hikes steep and painful, the next governor needs to build support for bold funding solutions. Incremental steps won't cut it.

This afternoon the MTA officially unveiled the fare and toll increases it's proposing to help close the agency's remaining $400 million budget gap. The dailies had already reported many of the measures on the table, and it looks like the burden is going to fall mainly on New Yorkers who use subways and buses the most. The price of a monthly unlimited Metrocard is either going up to $99 with a 90-ride cap, or it'll go up to $104 and stay truly unlimited.

Today, for the first time, New Yorkers braved the morning rush using our new, diminished transit system. With more than a dozen bus lines discontinued over the weekend, dozens more running less frequently, and subway service changes forcing straphangers to cope with longer rides and more crowded platforms, no one expects an orderly transition.

"Deal Saves Student Metrocards" proclaims the New York Times. "Ride on!" blares the Post. There's just one catch: There isn't really a deal.

Faced with a budget gap of nearly $800 million, the MTA Board voted to approve a slate of service cuts this afternoon that will affect millions of New Yorkers. The cuts are slated to start taking effect in June. Unless elected officials intervene to close the MTA's deficit, subway and bus riders will have to contend with less frequent service, more transfers, longer walks to the bus, and worse crowding on platforms and trains.

Earlier this month we described how Albany made off with more than 100 million dollars in dedicated transit taxes that should have gone to the MTA, using revenues collected from the New York City region to plug the statewide deficit. So we wondered, what's happening to the state's other transit authorities? It turns out that not only are upstate transit agencies still receiving subsidies from the state's general fund, they get a portion of the MTA's dedicated taxes too.

New York City high school students met with MTA Chair Jay Walder yesterday afternoon for a much-anticipated discussion of how to continue the MTA's student fare program. The meeting itself was closed to the media, but at a press conference that followed, both parties described their face-to-face as more of a strategy session than a confrontation.