Comments on: Can Ravitch rescue a system on the precipice?

By: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog » Blog Archive » MTA, Comptroller square off over planned capital budget cuts

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:04:16 +0000

[...] to delay passing its revised capital program amendment featuring millions of dollars of cuts until Richard Ravitch’s commission issues its report on funding the MTA later this [...]

By: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog » Blog Archive » Patterson fills out Ravitch commission with transit, finance experts

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:55:37 +0000

[...] and finance and electricity executives. The committee will now begin its unenviable task of finding tens of billions of dollars for the MTA to meet both its capital budget and its operations [...]

By: Todd

Todd — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:17:08 +0000

Sure, there are more people using the trains, and yes, the system has been under funded. But now we’re not allowed to blame the workers?

If you get hurt in NYC and you’re admitted to one of the chronically under funded city hospitals, the employees there are still expected to perform the very best care possible. If they do screw up, you’ll sue. Not just the worker who screwed up, but also the hospital, and the city itself. Simple as that. There’s no margin for error and there’s no excuses.

You can make all the excuses in the world, but the fact remains that the MTA continues to charge full fares for inadequate service. What’s it going to take to hold people accountable?

By: Second Ave. Sagas | Blogging the NYC Subways » Blog Archive » With delays on the rise, NYC Transit tries to copy the NYPD

Tue, 27 May 2008 05:39:50 +0000

[...] briefly touched upon this uptick in delays on Friday. Over the weekend, Patrick Gallahue of the New York Post explored just how NYC Transit is [...]

By: The Secret Conductor

The Secret Conductor — Sun, 25 May 2008 11:27:24 +0000

Good lawd… why do they always blame the workers??? lol When those trains are late, its our families, churches, and other personal matters that get put on hold until we can get the train moving again. We are not the ones who trash trains, throw stuff on tracks and brake doors. Riders do most of this.

Ok, no that I said that, the problem here is that more and more people are using the same system with mostly the same equipment. People just seem to assume the train system just should work but no one want to put the effort into improving it.

Maybe something was wrong with the congestion plan that no one wanted to get behind it, but with gas being the price it is, and more people moving/living/working in the city in the near future, we are going to have some serious problems if we do not invest in our transit system.

The bottom line is that we have to convince people like Todd that the system needs funds to run otherwise we will all be in big trouble. I see why its important to personal life as well as business everyday, so what happens if it goes wrong?

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:09:28 +0000

As much as you want to blame the MTA, it’s not the workers’ faults that the system has been underfunded to the tune of billions of dollars for the past two decades now. And it’s not the workers’ fault that the economy for construction costs has spiked in a way detrimental to these organizations. Perhaps it’s not the most efficient work force in the stations, but it’s not the employees’ faults as much as you’d like to blame them.

By: Todd

Todd — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:07:13 +0000

I blame The MTA from top to bottom; from the board members to the track workers, conductors, booth employees, trash collectors, and so on. I think these people forgot that working for The MTA is not their hobby. It is their job. They are paid to perform a service, and they should be expected to perform it well. Not just when they feel like it, but every day. If they don’t feel like working, they should be asked to leave. As long as they are apathetic about service, their customers will suffer. Surveys won’t fix this. Either they need to step it up and fix themselves, or someone should be tasked with fixing it for them. Enough is enough.