Don’t jump on the tracks to pick up your stuff. Just in case you didn’t know that, Jim Dwyer, former subway columnist, reminds us why it’s better to — gasp — trust MTA employees instead of climbing into the track beds to retrieve your stuff.

Here’s an interesting bit of news before we get to the service advisories: The MTA and CNN are working on a deal that would put TV screens in the subway.
Helen Kennedy at the Daily News notes that the pilot program, as CNN will front the installation costs, will be free to the MTA, and [...]

For years now, the MTA has seen ridership numbers skyrocket, and as the NYC Transit performance indicators show, subway ridership is again up this year. The MTA, as Matthew Sweeney reports today, however believes ridership numbers could level off in 2009. Citing higher unemployment rates and a lessening of the impact of high gas prices, [...]

It’s been a rough week for the MTA. With two fare hikes on tap over the next few years and only a balanced budget to show for it, the public is grumbling about paying more for the same sub-par service.
But grumble no more for tonight’s news is good. Starting on Sunday night and continuing [...]

Remember when, last month, David Gantt singlehandedly squashed any effective BRT-lane enforcement measures? Of course you do. Well, so does The New York Times, and today, a full 36 days after Gantt’s back-room dealings, the newspaper of record decided to opine on the issue. In an editorial today, the Gray Lady says that Gantt must [...]

While the jury is still out, NYC Transit plans to expand their line manager program. Howard Roberts, head of NYCT, and Elliot “Lee” Sander, MTA chief, say that the line manager program will help, in the words of Pete Donohue, “reorganiz[e] and streamlin[e] the underground bureaucracy.” But critics note that the two current test lines [...]

Let’s start with an unpopular premise: The fares for the New York City subways are far too low, and they’re kept at low levels artificially by politicians looking to curry favors with voters.
This isn’t the first time we’ve delved into the philosophy of subway fares. In November, I discussed how a five-cent fare long [...]

MTA officials gathered today for a pivotal board meeting today in which the preliminary budget went under the microscope. In short, the MTA plans to cut costs and workers while raising the fares and requesting more government money to cover a crushing $900-million deficit. Fare hikes are inevitable.
City Room succinctly sums up why [...]

As the MTA Board debates the financial future of the transit agency and the possibility of an upcoming fare hike — the second in two years — New York politicians and newspapers are sounding off on this hot-button issue. Let’s take a look at what everyone is saying.
We start with Mayor Bloomberg. In a [...]

While the newspapers today are again plastered with negative stories about the MTA’s budget crisis, I found, this evening, a glimmer of hope in the New York City subway system. On my way back to Brooklyn from the Upper West Side, I came across crews in the 96th St. subway station preparing new signs promising [...]