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February 2010

MTA Economics

The psychology of the $100 MetroCard

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 17, 2010

As the MTA acts out its political charade of threatening service cuts and the elimination of the student MetroCard program in the hopes of spurring some politicians to action, fare hikes remain the 800-pound gorilla in the room. The Authority could always attempt to avert cuts by drastically raising fares. When I last posed a fare hike solution, 78 percent of my readers said they preferred paying more to suffering through service cuts.

Yesterday, fare hikes and other more equitable funding solutions for the MTA crept back into the news. In a report for the Drum Major Institute on Public Policy, John Petro studied the potential fare hike that will come as early as 2011 and called upon the city to enact congestion pricing. Although congestion pricing remained Petro’s main focus, his fare numbers are alarming. The MTA could have to raise fares by 15 percent or more next year, leaving us with 30-day Unlimited Ride MetroCards that cost over $100.

For the MTA and for New Yorkers, that $100 mark seems to be a bit of a psychological hurdle. The agency, after all, has always had the fare option on the table, and the powers-that-be could have opted to jack up the prices of a ride years ago. By doing so, they should shift the fare burden onto the backs of their riders to a nearly unprecedented level the world over. Already, New Yorkers pay far more through farebox revenue than their international peers do for what is ostensibly a public good. Why not make the system fully dependent upon fares?

The main problem here is one that gets to the very root of the subway system. Is mass transit in New York City a vital part of city life that the government should support or is it an unnecessary luxury that should fund itself? To become self-sustaining, the MTA would have to raise fares to such a degree that ridership would necessarily decline. Many people simply would not be able to afford paying $100, $125, $150 for a monthly pass, and the per-ride cost would soar past $3. Ridership would decline, and thus, to compensate for that missing revenue, the MTA would have to raise prices even more. It would be a vicious, vicious circle indeed.

If the MTA is a vital part of city life and the state economy — which it is — then the government should be assisting it more than it does. If the MTA makes New York City possible, if the subways allow for people to live far from their offices in affordable neighborhoods in commute in over many miles for just the current swipe of a MetroCard, then the government shouldn’t be allowing the MTA’s services to slide, their fares to creep up too high or the agency’s finances to slide into turmoil.

And so we arrive at the threat of a $100 MetroCard. When the unlimited card was first introduced on July 4, 1998, the card cost $63. Today, it costs $89, and that increase is outpacing inflation by over seven percent. When the MTA breaks that $100 barrier, many people will no longer view the 30-Day as a necessity. Rather, a triple-digit price tag makes it a luxury. Even if the card remains a good deal — and it will because the pay-per-ride price continues to ride — many people will be hard pressed afford that $100 outlay every month.

In the end, as Petro details in his report and urges in a Daily News op-ed, congestion pricing should hold the solution. Implementing congestion pricing to avoid fare hikes and the end of the student MetroCard program would save a family of four $2300 a year while contributing to the overall economic and environmental health of New York City. As those prices creep ever higher and the MTA slides closer to financial disaster, it is time again to consider congestion pricing. That $100 MetroCard may be inevitable, but we can try to push it off for as long as possible.

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AsidesMTA Absurdity

For Michael Jackson, a mural but no station name at Hoyt/Schermerhorn

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 16, 2010

In August, two months after Michael Jackson’s death, Council Member Letitia James created a stir when she called upon the MTA to name its Hoyt/Schermerhorn stop after the King of Pop. He and Martin Scorscese made the station famous when the duo filmed Jackson’s video for Bad there in 1987, and James wanted to honor the late great music star. The MTA, which has a smart policy of naming stations after nearby geographical markers, rejected her request, but still, she pressed onward in her efforts to somehow glorify Jackson at this Downtown Brooklyn stop.

Today, we learn that despite the MTA’s own refusal to name the station after Jacko, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership has brokered a deal to honor Michael through some exterior art at Hoyt/Schermerhorn. The Post reports that a now-blank building facade at 45 Hoyt St. will become a mural memorializing the star. The DBP has yet to choose an artist or artistic style for their project, but it promises to be a grand display of pop music love. Now, if only Letitia James would put this much effort into securing real financing for the MTA.

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Moynihan Station

With TIGER grant in hand, Moynihan Phase I set to begin

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 16, 2010

A federal TIGER grant approved today ensures that at least the first phase of the Moynihan Station proposal will see the light of day. (Rendering via Friends of Moynihan Station)

After years of proposals, politicking and promises, Moynihan Station is finally poised to become something of a reality. Earlier today, Sen. Chuck Schumer, long a champion of the Penn Station expansion project, announced an $83 million TIGER grant for the station, and the money closes the Phase I budget gap. Construction will commence before the end of 2010.

As Elana Schor at Streetsblog DC details, the grant is part of the Obama Administration’s competitive $1.5 billion Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery program, and New York’s plan is the first bid winner. This award is a clean sign of the federal Department of Transportation’s move toward a more merit-based funding solution. “Moynihan Station is the poster child for the best way to use federal funding,” Schumer said. “It creates jobs, upgrades aging transportation infrastructure, and leaves behind an economic engine for the entire region.”

With this $83.3 million grant in place, the Moynihan Station now has a guaranteed $267 million set aside for it. The breakdown, per a press release is as follows: $110 million in previously earmarked federal funding, $35 million from the Metropolitan Transit Authority, $14 million from the State of New York, and $10 million from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

So what then does $267 million buy at the planned site of a new transportation hub? Unfortunately, not very much. Per Friends of Moynhian Station, the money will go toward:

  • Building two new entrances to Penn Station’s platforms from West of Eighth Avenue through the corners of the Farley Building;
  • Doubling the length and width of the West End Concourse;
  • Providing 13 new “vertical access points” (escalators, elevators and stairs) to the platforms;
  • Doubling the width of the 33rd Street Connector between Penn Station and the West End Concourse and;
  • Other critical infrastructure improvements including platform ventilation and catenary work.

Phase II, construction of the train hall in the Farley Building, will be independently funded and is currently estimated to cost between $1 and $1.5 billion. The Friends of Moynihan Station stress that all Phase I elements will be independently functional in the very likely event that Phase II doesn’t get off the ground any time soon.

Still, long-term advocates of the station were thrilled with today’s developments. “We’re very pleased this critical project is finally getting underway, after years of delay,” Bob Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, said. “There is no more important project for creating needed transportation capacity in the regional rail system and for catalyzing the redevelopment of New York’s Far West Side.”

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Service Advisories

After the snow, mid-week travel woes on the IND

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 16, 2010

When the MTA called off all weekend work on February 5, the agency knew it was taking a gamble. Snow was in the forecast, but chances of a big storm coming our way were small. With service changes impacting nearly every subway line that weekend, the authority knew it would have to scramble to finish the completed work, and when the weather was milder than expected, the agency had seemingly lost its gamble.

During the past weekend, subway-bound New Yorkers saw firsthand how the decision to cancel work could impact service a few days later. The G train, for instance, was out of commission from 10:30 p.m. on Friday night until 5 a.m. this morning, a span of 77.5 hours. During most three-day weekends when service on Monday runs on a weekend schedule, the crews are called off the job on the holiday, but this past weekend, nearly every change stretched through Monday to make up for lost time.

Still, it wasn’t enough for the MTA to complete the work they needed to complete, and late yesterday afternoon, Transit announced some changes to the IND routing this week. This change was originally supposed to go into effect last week, but with the actual snowstorm, it was postponed until now. Here’s what’s happening:

As part of the signal modernization project near Chambers St., the uptown C and D trains will switch routes north of 59th St. The uptown C will run express along the A tracks from Canal St. to 145th St.; the uptown D train will run local under Central Park West from 59th St. to 145th St.; and the E will continue to make all local stops from its World Trade Center terminal to 50th St. along 8th Ave.

Transit straight-railing the switch north of Canal St., and so during this week, C trains cannot make the move from the tracks out of Brooklyn onto the local tracks under 8th Ave. Transit apologized for the late notification of this service change, and I’m sure more than few riders were in for a surprise this morning.

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Subway History

Turning Columbus Circle into an IRT express stop

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 16, 2010

When the New York City subway system was built in the early 1900s and later expanded throughout the 1930s, the route planners had a difficult task at hand. Using the city as they knew it then and the city as projected later, they had to extrapolate routes based on need. It’s tough to know in 1904 which stops should be served by an express train and which shouldn’t in 2010.

Nowhere in the system is this problem more evident than along the West Side IRT — known familiarly as the 1, 2 and 3 trains — at 72nd St. and 59th St./Columbus Circle. With its too-narrow platforms and mid-avenue stationhouses, the 72nd St. station has been a mysterious express stop nearly since day one. It’s not at a major above-ground landmark, and it’s not a fork in the system as 96th St. is. There, the express trains head east and toward the Bronx while the 1 continues north under Broadway. At 72nd St., the stop simply serves as a way point between the run from 42nd St. to 96th St.

Meanwhile, 13 blocks to the south sits Columbus Circle. In 1904, it served as the entryway to Central Park, but today, it is a bustling hub of people with commercial and office space to the west and tourists to the east. As a major transfer point between the 6th Ave. and 8th Ave. IND routes and the West Side IRT, Columbus Circle is the seventh busiest subway station in the system. In 2008, over 20 million straphangers passed through the station. Despite the obvious popularity, it is not an express stop.

Those who frequent the Columbus Circle station have long wondered about the lack of an express stop, and the perfect storm of conditions in the mid-1950s nearly turned 59th St. into an express service. Let’s jump into the archives to relive that bit of subway history. In 1954, Robert Moses, then head of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, oversaw the construction of the New York Coliseum at Columbus Circle. Despite his lukewarm support of and outright hostility transit throughout much of his career, this time, he wanted something from the subways and asked the Transit Authority to consider turning 59th St. into an express stop. He nearly got his way.

In August 1954, as construction commenced on the Coliseum, the TA supported a $172 million work plan for 1955. In that plan included an $11.6 million project that would have turned Columbus Circle from a local-only stop into an express station along the IRT. The work would have been massive. The two local tracks would have been pushed out with the platforms remaining in place, and an express bulb in the middle of the two express tracks would have been constructed there. The track layout would have resembled the current design of Penn Station along the IRT. Meanwhile, the express platforms at 72nd St. would have been walled off, and that station would have become a local-only stop.

The plans themselves though never made it off the drawing room floor. The TA approved a contract for the work in March 1955 after the Board of Estimate had approved the plan the previous December. By 1956, though, as work hadn’t yet begun, TA head Charles Patterson had already come out against the plan. He wanted to simply lengthen the five-car platforms at 59th St. and believed that to be adequate to serve the ridership growth anticipated by the opening of the Coliseum.

That lengthening was, of course, how this story ends. The IRT platforms were lengthened in the 1950s to accommodate longer train cars, and 59th St. was no exception. The express plans were discarded. Every few decades, a civic group calls upon the MTA to explore adding an express stop to 59th St. In 1997, the American Institute of Architects passed a resolution with detailed plans — available here as a PDF — calling for that express stop modification. It went nowhere.

Now, Columbus Circle is amidst a massive renovation that won’t bring express service to it along the IRT but will make the station nicer and easier to navigate. For now, we’ll just have to watch as those express trains zoom past a logical stopping point, and we’ll blame August Belmont for his lack of foresight. Mostly, he was right about where to place those IRT stops, but at 59th St., the future proved him wrong.

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MTA EconomicsMTA Politics

Times: Albany must find a ‘lasting solution’

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 15, 2010

Calling New York a failed state in its current iteration isn’t too much of a stretch. We have a governor with no public support, and a State Senate that can’t stop its in-fighting long enough to pass any sort of legislation. When they do get their collective acts together for a long enough period of time to get something done, the results fall far short of what is promised as is the case with last May’s MTA funding package.

Over the weekend — unfortunately on a Saturday when fewer people are around to read it — The New York Times took Albany to task for its MTA failures. In a scathing editorial, the Gray Lady called upon Albany to find a better solution for the MTA. With a budget shortfall of nearly $800 million, the MTA is on borrowed time, and The Times succinctly outlines the sources of the shortfall. Tax revenues are down; the payroll tax brought in $200 million less than expected; fare revenue is down by $100 million; Albany cut $143 million; the upcoming TWU raises will cost the agency $100 million. It is a perfect storm of bad circumstances.

The Times though is concerned with the machinations in Albany right now. Writes the paper:

Now Governor Paterson is threatening to make things worse. In a clear pander to suburban voters in this year’s governor’s race, he is calling for cutting the payroll tax in seven suburban counties around the city while increasing the payroll tax in the city’s five boroughs.

A Legislature that is heavy on representatives from New York City is unlikely to go along — at least on raising the city’s taxes. The danger is that legislators, also facing voters this year, will decide to cut suburban payroll taxes without making up the loss to the transportation authority.

Some advocates are suggesting the agency shift some of its federal stimulus money — supposed to be reserved for maintenance, subway construction and upgrades — to use for operations. Transportation experts warn that if that happens, the system would deteriorate. Remember the ratty old subways of 30 years ago?

Albany must come up with a lasting solution for the M.T.A. That means leaving the payroll tax alone and finding new revenue sources — starting with tolls on Manhattan’s free bridges that could raise an estimated $600 million a year. It may mean raising fares, although that should be a last resort. It will mean supporting the new Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman, Jay Walder, including in his plans to lay off workers as he streamlines the system.

What it should not mean is doing away with free passes for needy students. Both the state and city will have to contribute more to help pay $214 million a year to help keep these students in school.

The transit system that feeds the New York City area is crucial to the welfare and commercial vitality of the entire state. Governor Paterson and the Legislature have a responsibility to make sure it has the money it needs to keep working.

In a nutshell, this editorial tracks closely with everything I’ve been writing over the last few months. Albany must find a better solution. It’s time to renew the push for East River Bridge Tolls. It’s time for a sensible solution for transit in a city more heavily dependent on its subways and buses than any other in the nation.

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AsidesService Advisories

Saturday service on a Monday

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 15, 2010

I’ll be back later in the day with some posts, but for everyone traveling on Presidents Day, keep in mind that service will run on a Saturday schedule. Some weekend service changes are still in effect while others are not. Listen to the on-board announcements, and check the signs in your local station.

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Service Advisories

Subway workin’ during the three-day weekend

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 12, 2010

For most people, three-day weekends are the best. Sunday night doesn’t carry with it the threat and dread of a Monday morning, and most people can kick back and enjoy an extra day off. For those working on the subway, this three-day weekend offers up a chance to catch up after Transit prematurely canceled last weekend’s work due to the threat of a snow storm that never really came. With Monday’s service set to follow a regular Saturday schedule, some lines — the A, G and 7, in particular — will see its work stretch through the entire three-day weekend.

Anyway, the fine print: These advisories came to me from New York City Transit and are subject to change with no notice. Check the signs at your local station and listen to on-board announcements for the latest. Subway Weekend has the map right here. The rest of the alerts follow:


12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 15, downtown 1 and 2 trains skip 86th, 79th, 66th, 59th and 50th Streets due to a concrete pour for switches north of 72nd Street and station rehabilitation at 96th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, February 13 and Sunday, February 14, and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, February 15, 3 train service is extended to/from 34th Street-Penn Station due to a concrete pour for switches north of 72nd Street and station rehabilitation at 96th Street.


From 11 p.m. Friday, February 12 to 6 a.m. Saturday, February 13, from 11 p.m. Saturday, February 13 to 8 a.m. Sunday, February 14, and from 11 p.m. Sunday, February 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 15, Manhattan-bound 4 trains run express from Burnside Avenue to 125th Street due to a track chip-out at 149th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 15, downtown-bound 4 trains run express from 14th Street-Union Square to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall due to construction of the Bleecker Street to Broadway-Lafayette transfer.


From 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, February 13 and from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Sunday, February 14, 5 trains run every 20 minutes between Eastchester-Dyre Avenue and Bowling Green due to construction of the Bleecker Street to Broadway-Lafayette transfer.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, February 15, downtown-bound 6 trains run express from 14th Street-Union Square to Brooklyn Bridge due to construction of the Bleecker Street to Broadway-Lafayette transfer.


At all times until September 13, 2010, the Whitlock Avenue and Morrison-Sound View Avenues stations are closed for rehabilitation. Customers should use the Elder Avenue 6 station, the Simpson Street 25 station, or the Bx4 bus, which provides alternate connecting service between stations.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, there are no 7 trains running between Times Square-42nd Street and Queensboro Plaza due to track panel installation on the Davis Street curve, installation of new switch at Hunters Point Avenue, track chip-out at Vernon Blvd.-Jackson Avenue, and construction of the Long Island City-Court Square to 45th Road-Court House Square transfer. The NQ and free shuttle buses provide alternate service. Note: 42nd Street Shuttle runs overnight; Q trains are extended to/from Ditmars Blvd.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, Queens-bound A trains run local from 168th to 145th Streets, express to Canal Street (except during midnights, when the A is normally local) and resume local service to Euclid Avenue with the following exceptions: 12:01 to 5 a.m., Saturday—Queens-bound trains skip Liberty, Van Siclen and Shepherd Avenues; 12:01 to 5 a.m., Sunday—Queens-bound trains run express from Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets to Utica Avenue; 12:01 to 5 a.m., Monday—Queens-bound trains skip Ralph and Rockaway Avenues. This is due to wall tile cleaning and the Chambers Street Signal Modernization project.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, Manhattan-bound A trains run local from Euclid Avenue to Jay Street, then are rerouted onto the F to West 4th Street, where they resume local service to 59th Street, express to 145th Street, then local to 168th Street. This is due to the Chambers Street Signal Modernization project.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, there are no C trains running due to Chambers Street Signal Modernization. Customers should take the A instead. Note: A trains run local with exceptions.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, D trains run local from 59th Street-Columbus Circle to 145th Street due to the Chambers Street Signal Modernization project. The D substitutes for the C train from 59th Street to 145th Street.


From 10:30 p.m. Friday, February 12 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, there are no G trains running. This is due to a switch replacement at Bedford-Nostrand Avenues, asbestos removal at Greenpoint Avenue, fan plant work at Jackson Avenue and track maintenance work at various locations. For service between Forest Hills-71st Avenue, customers should take the R during the day and the E during the late night hours. Free shuttle buses run between Queens Plaza and Jay Street. For service to Church Avenue, customers should transfer between the shuttle bus and F trains at Jay Street.


From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, February 13 and Sunday, February 14, the last stop for some Jamaica Center-bound J trains is 111th Street due to track maintenance. Customers should transfer at 111th Street to continue their trip.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, Queens-bound N trains run local from Canal Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to a concrete pour at 14th Street-Union Square.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, Queens-bound N trains are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street due to the Lawrence Street station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector to Jay Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, February 13 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, uptown-bound Q trains run local from Canal Street to 34th Street-Herald Square due to a concrete pour at 14th Street-Union Square.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, February 12 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, Q train service is extended to/from Astoria-Ditmars Blvd. due to track panel installation on the Davis Street curve.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, February 13, downtown-bound Q trains run local from 57th Street-7th Avenue to 34th Street-Herald Square due to track cleaning.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, February 14, uptown-bound Q trains run local from 34th Street-Herald Square to 57th Street-7th Avenue due to track cleaning.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, February 13, Sunday, February 14 and Monday, February 15, R trains are re-routed over the Manhattan Bridge between DeKalb Avenue and Canal Street due to Lawrence Street station rehabilitation and construction of the underground connector to Jay Street.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, February 12 to 5 a.m. Tuesday, February 16, the 42nd Street S shuttle runs overnight to replace 7 trains in Manhattan (track panel installation on the Davis Street curve.

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7 Line ExtensionAsides

Real Estate developers lobby for sensible 7 extension

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 12, 2010

As the 7 line extension’s tunnel boring machines continue their treks toward the existing sections of the route, the elimination of a stop at 41st St. and 10th Ave., killed for lack of funds, has become a sore point for the project, and now, real estate developers are calling upon the city and MTA to act sensibly. As Lori Weiss noted in The Post, Mary Anne Tighe, the head of the Real Estate Board of New York, believes the long-discarded stop should be built. She wants the MTA and city to anoint it a shovel-ready project so that it would be eligible for stimulus funds. However, others say there just isn’t money — some estimates put the price tag at $500-$800 million — available for it.

I’ve long wondered why the real estate lobby hasn’t been more vocal on this issue. New developments line 42nd St. far west of any current subway route, and Related is planning on constructing a building at 41st St. and 10th Aves., right above the new 7 line tunnel. It’s still not too late for the city and MTA to set this project on a better path, but time is short. Construction of a station there after the fact will be even more costly than it will be today, and as I’ve said in the past, this station would greatly improve the utility of this expensive subway extension.

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New York City Transit

Profiling a high-powered snow thrower

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on February 12, 2010

On Wednesday night, as I praised the MTA for better handling inclement weather than they had in the past, I ran a photo of the MTA’s high-powered snow blower. Described in a December release as “similar to a household snow thrower, just a lot bigger,” this particular thrower helped keep the Broad Channel crossing and the IND Rockaway Line free from snow.

Little did I realize just how alluring stories about big machinery can be. Yesterday, Pete Donohue of the Daily News profiled the MTA’s snow thrower as well. The machine is massive. It features a six-foot cylindrical brush that gobbles out snow, feeds it into a chute and launches it through a tube eight feet above ground. Transit says the machine can throw snow 200 feet and can clear 3000 tons of snow an hour.

These snow throwers are but a part of the MTA’s anti-snow fleet. The agency also has de-icer cars, jet blowers and ballast regulators that keep the tracks free from snow and ensure that snow drifts do not interfere with train operations. As other subway systems throughout the country — DC’s WMATA, in particular — struggle to maintain any semblance of service during large snow storms, the MTA has equipment ready to ensure that our 24-hour subway system can run above and below ground with few problems.

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