March 2010

Mark your calendar for a transit funeral: The last V and W trains will roll down the line on Friday, June 25.

After the MTA voted to approve sweeping service cuts that will save just $91 million while inconveniencing millions, the authority announced today that all bus and rail changes will go into effect on June 27, 2010. Because that is a Sunday, the V and W trains, the two weekday-only lines slated for elimination, will run their last regular service ride that Friday. The M will turn orange and head up Sixth Ave. via the Chrystie St. Cut on Monday, June 28, and the Q, express in Manhattan, will run local north of 57th St. to Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria. The Staten Island Ball Park special will be discontinued prior to the start of the Staten Island Yankees’ June 18 season opener.

For MTA officials, the decision to cut service was not made lightly. “The extent of our deficit requires that most of the cuts move ahead, but we listened to our customers and made changes where we could,” MTA Chairman and CEO Jay H. Walder said this morning. “We were able to take a number of cuts off the table but unfortunately, many of the cuts moving ahead will be painful.”

Although these cuts will come down the pike this summer, the MTA did not vote on a proposal to eliminate the Student MetroCard plan yet, and politicians and advocates are still squaring off on the issue. The Mayor slammed the state for its failure to fund student travel. “It’s the state that has cutback subsidies to the MTA and the state that has cutback the MetroCards for kids so call Albany,” Michael Bloomberg said. “If they cut back our subsidies to the MTA, they cut back the subsidies for MetroCards for the students, I think it is an outrage but it’s not the MTA’s fault, it’s the state’s fault.”

The Straphangers Campaign, though, was not willing to let the Mayor escape City Hall’s portion of the blame. “It’s true that the State triggered the current crisis over student MetroCards when Governor David Paterson cut state funding for the program,” Gene Russianoff said in a statement. “But it is also true that the City’s contribution for moving 585,000 students each weekday on the subways and the buses has remained stagnant since 1995 at $45 million. If student MetroCards are to continue, there will have to be increased funding from both the City and the State.”

With this round of cuts, the MTA has only just started what will be a year-long deficit reduction problem. The agency had a budget gap totaling nearly $800 million for 2010 and still must come up with hundreds of millions of dollars in savings. To that end, the MTA is trying to renegotiation supply contracts and defer or eliminated unnecessary projects. The agency is going to cut internal spending my consolidating its agencies and reducing overtime, and the authority said it will meet with union leaders to identify more money-saving programs as well.

Still, on June 27, at a time of historic ridership levels, the MTA will eliminate trains and cut services because Albany has failed to provide for mass transit in New York City. “The reality is that closing the first $400 million is extremely painful, and closing the additional gap will be even harder,” Walder said. “We’ve just taken a very difficult vote, but there are more difficult choices ahead to achieve necessary cost savings.”

The MTA Board is on the verge of starting their debate and subsequent vote on the service cuts. I’m going to liveblog the hearing. Follow along below.

Tomorrow morning, the MTA Board, after hours of contentious debate, will vote on the latest round of service cuts. By all accounts, the reduction in service, designed to save the deficit-riddled MTA $93 million, will be approved, but they are just the tip of the iceberg as the agency will still have to address another $400 million budget hole that has emerged since the cuts were first announced.

To understand the impact of the Board vote and what it means for the immediate future of transit in New York City, I offer up a brief FAQ on the vote.

Does the vote mean service will definitely be cut?

When the MTA Board votes tomorrow, they are doing so well in advance of their so-called drop-dead date. The cuts are designed to go into effect in June and will be rolled out slowly over the course of the summer. If the MTA’s financial picture improves or if the state is able to address the MTA’s funding gap before the end of May, these cuts could be taken off the table. However, the state is broke, and the MTA still must, as I mentioned above, close a $400 million budget gap. One way or another, we will see service cuts this year.

What happened to the Student MetroCard cuts?

Because the introduction of a half-priced Student MetroCard won’t begin until September, the MTA has decided to postpone a vote on that part of the cuts package. Political support is growing for some sort of action on Student MetroCards, and the MTA does not want to back itself into a corner by cutting the service now before the politicians have time to respond to constituent demands.

If and when the Student MetroCards are up for a vote, the MTA has structured the plan to give Albany ample time to save free travel. During the 2010-2011 school year, the authority would offer half-price rides to students, and only in September 2011 would any student discounts be eliminated. Odds are good that someone will step up to the plate before the MTA does away with free rides for students.

Can Sen. Espada’s bridge toll plan avert the MTA’s cuts?

Over the weekend, Pedro Espada, part of the Four Hike Four, surprised everyone by announcing his support for East River Bridge tolls. The revenue would be dedicated to the MTA, and all money from tolls must be, in the words of the Senator, “earmarked specifically for the restoration of the free student MetroCard program and other subway and bus services that are being targeted with cuts or elimination.” Sounds like a rescue plan, no?

Well, Espada’s plan has some faulty assumptions. He is proposing a $2 toll on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges and claims this toll would raise over $500 million for the MTA. Those who have studied the issue in depth — such as the Drum Major Institute’s John Petro — say that Espada is overestimating by double. As Petro writes today, this plan would net the MTA around $250 million. That would be enough, for now, to save student transit and take most of the subway and bus cuts off the table.

There is, however, one final catch. If Espada’s plan delivers just $250 million annually, the MTA would still need another $500 million to cover the remaining deficit, and those cuts would probably be reinstated. Right now, the MTA is running a dangerous political game by not proposing $750 million in cuts, but that’s the way it is. Any money from Espada is better than nothing.

Will the MTA raise fares this year?

As part of the last MTA funding plan approved in 2009, the MTA will be raising fares at the start of 2011, and the agency has been vehement in its adherence to that schedule. There will be, they say, no fare hikes this year. Still, some Board members seem to be floating trial balloons on the fare hike. If the MTA does raise its fares this year, it would probably be viewed as an advance on the 2011 fare hikes, and the authority would not, barring an economic catastrophe, have to raise fares again next year.