Mar
05
Backtracking on permanent weekend service cuts
ByAt the end of February, New York City Transit announced that, due to construction and budgetary concerns, weekend service would be slashed no matter what. The cost savings for this move was set at around $4 million a year, and New York City Transit President Howard Roberts explained that the decision was spurred on by the MTA’s ambitious state-of-good-repair plan.
Yesterday, amidst the rancorous politicking over the MTA’s potential rescue plan, NYC Transit apparently reconsidered those potentially permanent cuts. NY1 News reports:
The MTA now says a plan to cut back weekend subway service can be avoided, if Albany lawmakers act on a plan to shore up the agency’s $1.2 billion budget gap.
Last week, the MTA said it was moving forward with plans to reduce the scheduled frequency of weekend subway service on most of the lettered lines, beginning in June. But the agency has since reversed course and now says it will drop the plan, if lawmakers come through with a rescue plan for the cash-strapped agency.
Maybe the MTA reevaluated its need to drop weekend service cuts. Maybe this is just sloppy politics. If it’s the latter, this move won’t help the MTA respond to State Senator Malcolm Smith’s claims that the agency has no control over its finances. It sure is an odd political carrot, but as a frequent weekend rider, who am I to complain?
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I’m guessing it’s more “sloppy politics” than “reevaluated its need to drop weekend service cuts”.
I don’t understand this manuever by the MTA. The weekend service cuts actually made a little sense because of the work that is done on the weekends.
It strikes me as a poorly executed tit for tat. The MTA will drop plans to permanently cut weekend service if the state is willing to toss them a significant amount of money. The cost savings for this rather inconvenient plan after all was minimal compared to the billion-dollar deficit.
There’s a big difference between cutting service when there is construction work, and cutting it permanently.
Yeah, in theory. In practice… not so much. Rarely is there a weekend anymore when there aren’t massive disruptions.