Archive for January, 2009
Jan
05
When the MTA had a surplus
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As the first week of 2009 dawns, we’ll soon be hearing a lot about more about the MTA’s finances. The authority has public hearings on the Doomsday budget set for this month, and at some point, the state legislature will begin to deal with a Ravitch-inspired bailout plan.
But in the meantime, let’s hop into the Wayback Machine. We’ll visit a time when the MTA had money and decided to spend all on us! Those were the days, eh?
The time is 2005, and the MTA has determined that they will enjoy a $928-million budget surplus for that fiscal year. That number would in fact eventually reach $1.04 billion. As The Times explained at the time, the surplus “stemmed from the unusually high real estate taxes and low interest rates.” We now know all too well what happens when unusually high real estate taxes turn into unusually low real estate taxes, but we’ll get to that later.
In an effort to give something back to the riders, the MTA in October announces a plan for discount holiday fares. Immediately, this move is decried as “a marketing gimmick” by city experts. This move will cost the MTA $100 million of their surplus with the rest going to reducing some unfunded pension liability, enhancing subway security and expanding service.
Experts were skeptical. “Why is the M.T.A. engaging in feel-good, short-term gimmicks rather than convincing riders and business leaders that it has sensible, long-term plans for a balanced operating budget and a fully funded capital budget?” James A. Parrott, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, said to Sewell Chan.
Some city officials wondered about the rational behind the move. “Whom does this actually benefit?” Preston Niblack of the city’s Independent Budget Office said to The Times. “It does not really solve any structural issues. It’s great from a public relations point of view, but it does not address long-term needs.” It never does.
In the end, the MTA Board approved the plan but not without dissent. Some board members feared the discount offerings would lead the public to believe the MTA had full coffers at a time when internal documents were predicting a $900-million deficit for as soon as 2009. (They clearly underestimated.)
In the end, the program earned mixed reviews, and transit advocates maintained that the money should have been reinvested in the system and used to shore up the MTA’s shaky future financial picture. Even in 2006, hindsight was 20/20.
Now, three years removed from the days of discount fares, the MTA has gone from a surplus to a deficit of a size larger than the one predicted in 2005. If the agency knew that their finances were going to head south, why didn’t they urge a Ravitch Commission-type investigation sooner? For years, we’ve know that real estate tax revenue is no way to fund a transit system, and now we’re paying the press.
At some point, the MTA’s finances will improve, and the agency may once again be saddled with the “problem” of a surplus. But for now, we can just look back on 2005 as a moment in time when transit funding seemed secure, and the riders got a discount, misguided as it may have been.
Jan
02
Weekend Service Advisories
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From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5, uptown 46 trains run express from Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall to Grand Central-42nd Street due to a track chip-out north of Spring Street.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, January 3 to 10 p.m. Sunday, January 4, Manhattan-bound 6 trains run express from Pelham Bay Park to Parkchester due to track panel installation from Castle Hill Avenue to Parkchester. The last stop for some Bronx-bound 6 trains is 3rd Avenue-138th Street.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5 (and the following weekend Jan 9-12), there are no 7 trains between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation on the Davis Street curve and security conduit and cable installation in the under river tube. The NQ and free shuttle buses provide alternate service.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5, downtown A trains skip 50th, 23rd, and Spring Streets due to fan plant rehabilitation south of 7th Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, Manhattan-bound A trains skip Shepherd, Van Siclen and Liberty Avenues due to track cleaning.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5, free shuttle buses replace A trains between 168th and 207th Streets due to tunnel lighting work north of 168th Street. Customers may transfer between the Broadway or Ft. Washington Avenue shuttle bus and the A train at 168th Street.
From 10:30 p.m. Friday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5, free shuttle buses replace A trains between Beach 90th Street and Far Rockaway due to track panel work.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, January 4, Manhattan-bound A trains skip Rockaway and Ralph Avenues due to track cleaning.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5, there are no C trains running due to fan plant rehabilitation south of 7th Avenue. Customers should take the A train instead.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5, downtown D trains run on the A from 145th Street to West 4th Streets due to fan plant rehabilitation south of 7th Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 3 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5, the D train runs in two sections (due to fan plant rehabilitation south of 7th Avenue):
- Between 205th Street and Broadway-Lafayette Street
- Between Broadway-Lafayette Street and Stillwell Avenue
Customers may transfer at Broadway-Lafayette Street to continue their trip.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, January 4, Manhattan-bound F trains run local from Roosevelt Avenue to 21st Street-Queensbridge due to track cleaning.
From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, January 3, Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue F trains run local from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to track cleaning.
From 8:30 p.m. Friday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5, there are no G trains between Forest Hills-71st Avenue due to subway tunnel rehabilitation between Whitehall and Canal Streets.
From 5:30 a.m. Saturday, January 3 to 10 p.m. Sunday, January 4, free shuttle buses replace J trains between Broadway Junction and Cypress Hills due to fiber optic cable installation Crescent Street and Broadway Junction.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 2, to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5 (and weekends through February 2), there are no L trains between 8th Avenue and Union Square due to switch renewal near 8th Avenue. Customers may use the M14 bus instead.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 2, to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5 (and weekends through February 2), L trains run in two sections (due to switch renewal near 8th Avenue):
- Between Union Square and Bedford Avenue, skipping 3rd Avenue and
- Between Bedford Avenue and Rockaway Parkway
Customers must transfer at Bedford Avenue to continue their trip
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 3 and 5 a.m. Monday, January 5 (and the following weekend Jan 10-12), NR trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street in both directions due to subway tunnel rehabilitation between Whitehall and Canal Streets.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 3 and 5 a.m. Monday, January 5 (and the following weekend Jan 10-12), NQ trains run local between Canal Street and 57th Street due to track panel installation on the Davis Street curve and security conduit and cable installation in the under river tube.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, January 3 and 5 a.m. Monday, January 5 (and the following weekend Jan 10-12), Q trains are extended to Ditmars Blvd. due to track panel installation on the Davis Street curve and security conduit and cable installation in the under river tube.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, January 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, January 5 (and the following weekend Jan 9-12), the 42nd Street Shuttle S operated overnight.
Jan
02
Sander predicts no strike as talks with TWU continue
Posted by: | CommentsTo add insult to financial injury, the MTA’s current contract with the Transit Workers Union is set to expire at the end of the month. Now would probably be a good time to force TWU to accept staffing level cutbacks and stagnant salaries, but the MTA can ill afford another transit strike. To that end, TWU and MTA officials have been negotiated for a while, and MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander predicts that a strike will be avoided. That’s good news for the beleaguered MTA.
Jan
02
The MTA’s real endgame
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Before the year ended, the MTA released a whole bunch of numbers concerning the so-called Doomsday scenario that might come to pass. The agency unveiled four different fare hike proposals and outlined the various service cuts that could go into effect as early as June. It’s scary stuff for a city so dependent upon a healthy transit system.
While these numbers can seem a bit discouraging and overwhelming, the MTA isn’t releasing them into the void of the public for no purpose. Legally, they are required to announce the proposed changes in advance of this month’s public hearing, but politically, the powers-that-be at the MTA have an endgame as well. Newsday reminds us of just what that endgame is in an editorial:
But let’s look at the MTA’s underlying message. What the agency is trying to convey is a doomsday picture, which it will carry out unless the State Legislature comes to the rescue. We’re all familiar with that concept, now that our tax dollars have bailed out Wall Street and Detroit.
The MTA must find a revenue stream to fund its operating costs, which are out of whack by $1.2 billion next year. Its bailout would come in the form of East River bridge tolls and a payroll tax, which were recommended by a commission led by former MTA chief Richard Ravitch. The Ravitch Commission ideas could eliminate the need for service cuts and reduce fare increases to 8 percent. But that would mean more taxes and no incentive to squeeze fat out of the bureaucracy. No fare hikes can begin until March…
MTA news has been muddled, but keep the endgame in mind, and you won’t be fooled: The State Legislature is the real target of these fare-hike scary tales.
The emphasis, clearly, is mine.
It’s hard to understate this theory. The MTA does not want to institute a fare hike while significantly scaling back service. The agency doesn’t want to annoy millions of New Yorkers who suddenly find themselves waiting longer for more crowded trains that run on reduced routes. The transit authority would rather be adding more bus routes and select bus service instead of cutting bus routes and jacking up express bus fares.
But they can’t. They don’t have the money or political support to do so, and until that support arrives, they will be left with the only tools at their disposal to balance the budget: fare hikes and service cuts.
New Yorkers have a seemingly hard time understanding this point, but Newsday nails the issue. If straphanging citizens of this city are unhappy with the MTA, that’s their prerogative, but that ire should also be directed at Albany and City Hall. Until some politician can come up with a plan, the rest of us will be left out in the cold, paying more and waiting longer for the trains.
