Earlier this morning, I appeared on Fox 5’s Good Day, New York along side Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. The two of us talked with host Greg Kelly about the MTA’s weekend travel woes, the Congressional attempt to find money for nationwide transit authority operating deficits and the upcoming service cuts. The accompanying short story is available online, and you can watch the video below. Check it out.
SAS on ‘Good Day, New York’
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15 comments
Looking good in that suit.
Greg Kelly is right, the city’s transit system operates like a third world railroad on the weekends. I took the subway to Penn Station on Saturday and the #2 train ran on the #1 line all the way downtown. Why? The express track between 96th Street and Chambers where being repairs.
My question, how long will the 7th Avenue express tracks be out of service on the weekends?
I can image when the service reductions take affect in late June. Its going to be a mess.
This is the reason why, the MTA should be abolished and a new public transit authority should be created with member that is voted into office by the people of this city, not by spacial interest.
In the Bronx the 2 trains terminated at 149st GC. That might of had something to do with it. Maybe they should of just not run 2 trains, then they could’ve furloughed the crews and saved some money.
The 2 should have been running express in Manhattan this weekend. It was yesterday when I was riding it. It wouldn’t make sense to furlough 2 train workers and not run the train when the West Side IRT needs the 2 to meet demand.
As for The Boss’ other arguments, I don’t think you can say the MTA should be abolished because of poor weekend service. What do you think direct election of MTA representatives would accomplish anyway? That’s how we elect the rest of our state representatives, and they’re doing bupkis these days. At least Jay Walder has a clue how to run a transit agency.
I was being hyperbolically sarcastic. Nasty habit. The MTA wouldn’t furlough or lay off operating personnel in a million years.
Oh, good for you being on TV and thanks for this site. Do you think Kelly’s 3rd world remark was unPC?
More than being un-PC, I think it was just uninformed. New York’s system has many problems, obviously, but comparing it to the “Third World” makes him sound like a spoiled know-nothing (which I know he isn’t).
A third world railroad – because one line was running local instead of express? How many first world railroads have express service on weekends? (How many first world railroads have express service at all?)
When are the repairs supposed to be done? Would you rather have all four tracks shut down?
JR East, for one. And Tokyo Metro, on the lines that have four-track passing sections.
But no, the third world railroad comment isn’t about the fact that lines are running local. It’s about the fact that everything goes into the crapper on weekends: missed connections, reroutings, slow orders.
Go Ben!!
Ben, I’m not sure why you do what you do — maintaining two active, well researched blogs while attending law school. Perhaps its a hobby, or maybe a means to a career path (has your other blog earned you press-access to the under-construction Yankee Stadium or guest spots on the YES network?). But I think I speak for all of us when I say we really appreciate it.
Agreed!
OK, I’ve been in the more developed portion of the Third World (mostly South America), and no transit systems are directly comparable, but the Third World mass transit systems that I’ve used were much better than the MTA, but just about every metric.
Again, the use of “Third World” in your comment doesn’t match up with its agreed-upon definition. The South American countries with mass transit systems are not Third World nations.
Take a look at this map and you can see that essentially Africa, parts of the Middle East, and some of Southeast Asia can truly be considered Third World, from a development perspective.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....t_2009.PNG
Anyway, this isn’t a big deal, it’s just a pet peeve.
Any aspirations on becoming the next Gene Russianoff?