A brief New York Times article summarizing the various service cuts the MTA will consider over the next few weeks as it struggles to balance its budget and close a gap near $500 million ends with a kicker. After running through the service changes — subway and bus elimination and less frequent midday service, student MetroCard Cuts and a plan to scale back Access-A-Ride service — Michael Grynbaum drops in a devastatingly effective quote from Andrew Albert, an MTA Board member and chairman of the New York City Transit Riders Council: “To have this situation in the most transit-dependent city in the country is a complete failure of government.”
In a sense, that’s what Second Ave. Sagas is all about. Although this site started out on the wheels of the Second Ave. Subway, it has, over the last three years, morphed into an all-encompassing platform for transit advocacy in New York City. I try to explore every facet of MTA operations within the five boroughs (and often outside the city), and one major theme has been the utter lack of financial respect Albany and City Hall give the MTA. Albert is right; this situation is an embarrassing failure of government in a city more reliant on its transit network than any other in the country. For now, though, I’ll just keep fighting the good fight in my corner of the Internet and hope for a better transit future in New York.
11 comments
Long time reader of your site. Keep up the good work.
I have a question about MTA revenues.
How much does the MTA generate?
Are they losing more money then they generate?
I believe the MTA doesn’t even recover half their operating expenses from fares alone. The majority of it is covered with taxes and government funding.
It’s the price we pay for having a low-price transit system. I don’t know of any other in the world that’s as vast for only $2.25 a ride.
New York City Transit recovers about 40% of its total expenses, operating and capital, from fares; the subway recovers 67%, the buses 20-something percent. MNRR recovers 40% as well, LIRR a little under 30%.
And globally, $2.25 is pretty expensive. In Paris, the base fare is €1.60, which in purchasing power terms is $2; with a pay-per-ride it’s €1.16, and an unlimited monthly costs €56.60. In Madrid, the base fare is €1 unless you’re going out into the suburbs. In Tokyo, short and medium-distance trips cost about ¥160-200, i.e. $1.60-2.00.
Articles like this one make really great this site, and yes, I absolutely agree with all what you state here.
Congratulations on the great work!!!
Let’s be clear that this was a failure of democracy. The state legislatures knew exactly what they were doing, and so far they have succeeded. The problem is that we’ve gotten a legislature that is so unrepresentative of the people that they can do things like this and still (apparently) get re-elected next year.
You should be very proud of yourself, Benjamin!
A failure of government, yes. But this has also been a failure of advocacy. The Straphangers Campaign and other advocates have been doing the public no favors with their utterly unserious approach to dealing with MTA’s festering fiscal crisis. Other metro regions have a vibrant and effective transit advocacy community, but tragically ours is calcified.
Thank you, Benjamin, for your thoughtful work on these issues.
Is it true that the MTA is actually not a “government” arm per se, and more like a group of political appointees who (like the bosses at OTB) are able to basically freeload & collect their salaries and benefits…and leaving the state & city effectively run the transit system?
And: I just discovered this site thru a link on GAWKER…very interesting, and I’ll definitely be back. Thanks for putting in the time to create and maintain it!
Agencies are spun off in hopes of being less susceptible to politics, but of course recent events have shown how effective that is.
Been reading this site for years now – keep up the great work!
[…] a transit-based city — the “most transit-dependent city in the country,” as Andrew Albert said — we as a society are better off with more service. (In fact, that is the beauty of the […]