Comments on: Walder eyes overtime, jobs as ways to save

By: DiNapoli audit targets overtime but says nothing new :: Second Ave. Sagas

DiNapoli audit targets overtime but says nothing new :: Second Ave. Sagas — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:41:20 +0000

[...] months, MTA officials have waged a war against overtime. In December, CEO and Chairman Jay Walder highlighted the overtime issue, and again in May, he spoke about how the authority will try to limit overtime shifts in order to [...]

By: Once more unto the overtime breach :: Second Ave. Sagas

Once more unto the overtime breach :: Second Ave. Sagas — Tue, 04 May 2010 05:42:13 +0000

[...] on the MTA’s overtime payouts sure sounds familiar. As MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder is exploring ways to reduce overtime, the MTA, say Tom Namako and James Fanelli, is doling out dollars left and right. It’s an [...]

By: Another politician criticizes MTA for something they can’t control « On Transport

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:17:21 +0000

[...] fails to mention that non-union workers – including the MTA’s top executives - are taking a 10% paycut in 2010 to cover part of the budget gap left by higher blue-collar wages and a cut in state aid. The councilman may have conveniently [...]

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:01:57 +0000

Part of the scheduling process is writing work programs to minimize costs to the agency. If may well be cheaper to pay someone to work for 10 hours than to split that work between two people. (It’s almost certainly cheaper if the service only runs for 10 hours – splitting it would mean paying two people each for a full day of work.) If that’s not being done already, then the schedulers aren’t doing their jobs.

Or do you mean reducing the span of service to less than 10 hours? That’s a service cut.

By: Walder, Samuelsen face off over :: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:37:42 +0000

[...] Jay Walder takes aim at the MTA’s labor costs, he and incoming TWU head John Samuelsen have engaged in a war of the words. On Wednesday, Walder [...]

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:06:05 +0000

Private companies overexpand in times of growth and then run out of money in times of recession; this is part of what makes the business cycle so nasty. One of the main purposes of government is to blunt the impact of the business cycle by engaging in austerity in good times and investing in bad times.

By: Boris

Boris — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:54:41 +0000

Guess what? The MTA is not private company. Who knew. Like other levels of government, it is doing the right thing by stimulating the economy with construction projects. If Obama and Congress were doing more than paying lip service to “cities” and “urban affairs”, they’d be pouring billions of dollars into the Second Avenue subway and numerous other transit projects around the country, stimulating the economy much more than any highway project can or will.

The bottom line is, the MTA and other public transit systems are forced to tax or borrow from users, who already pay for service, while highway projects are paid for with money borrowed from the Chinese at much lower interest rates. Well, the Chinese have much more money than New Yorkers do.

By: Boris

Boris — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:48:45 +0000

I agree. Many of the changes the politicians have wanted the MTA to make for decades are impossible or illegal because of those same politicians.

By: Boris

Boris — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:46:06 +0000

I just find it hard to believe that the state would ever agree to reform its laws in such a way as to make a private takeover practical or profitable. And anyway, I don’t see the system ever being profitable as a whole. Maybe operations.

By: rhywun

rhywun — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:05:34 +0000

No, I am not advocating breaking the laws of physics. In your example, better scheduling would eliminate the need for drivers operating a train for 10 hours.