Archive for June, 2010
Jun
22
The Lincoln Tunnel, 7 line and NIMBYism
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For New Yorkers attached to their subway system, the area of midtown west of 8th Ave. often feels like undiscovered territories. Parts of 10th and 11th Ave. in the West 30s or 40s are a good 15-minute walk from the subway, and as the rest of Manhattan has seen a spike in real estate value over the last 15-20 years, the area around the Lincoln Tunnel and in Hells Kitchen has been slower to grow. There are still, the romantics say, some true neighborhoods left on this island after all.
When the city and MTA announced plans to extend the 7 line west of Times Square to 11th Ave. and 34th St. with a station at 10th Ave. and 41st St., residents of the area reacted with something in between indifference and hatred. Despite living in a neighborhood that can feel marginalized and off the grid, these people weren’t holding their collective breath waiting for the train.
In fact, when the city discarded its plans for the station at 41st St. and 10th Ave. due to cost overruns, the neighborhood issued nary a peep. Not until recently did the Real Estate Board of New York, a powerful professional association, throw its voice behind a call to include this station in the 7 extension plans, and even then, those who live on the Far West Side stayed out of the debate. The silence was deafening.
At first, I didn’t understand why no one from Hells Kitchen seemed too concerned about the MTA’s plans. Those looking at the city on a macro level understood that New York was about to lose its best chance to bring subway service to an area woefully underserved by existing mass transit option. Any future investment would cost not the hundreds of millions the city claims a station at 10th Ave. would run them but in the billions. Provisioning for a station as the line is built would be far more economical than building one from scratch in the future.
Recently, though, after a few conversations with residents and a piece this weekend in the Daily News, I’ve come to understand why few in the area are actively calling for the city to build a subway stop there. It is, pure and simply, NIMBYism at its finest. The article in question is a neighborhood profile of the area around the Lincoln Tunnel. According to the News’ Jason Sheftell, this area has seen an explosion in the number of luxury buildings going up, and correspondingly, rents in the area are on the rise. Young people are moving in, and the old guard long used to being left alone in a relatively seedy area is getting squeezed out. Bringing the subway west will only exacerbate this gentrification.
One anonymous commenter on a post I wrote two weeks ago laid bare these concerns. While taking umbrage with my charge of NIMBYism, he said, “Families have lived in this area for generations and stayed here despite the rough times. Should they be forced out just to accommodate college kids who will move out anyway in less than five years?”
This argument against a subway station in a neighborhood in need of transit is the very definition of NIMBYism. Residents view a subway as desirable, but adding something desirable to the neighborhood makes the area more expensive. Rents go up; property values go up; property taxes go up; and some people are priced out of the area all because a subway stop grows. The same thing, by the way, is bound to happen along the Upper East Side in a few years.
But NIMBYism should not be an excuse for poor urban planning. On the grand scheme of the future of the city, the Far West Side will undergo a change no matter what. Whether we support Mayor Bloomberg’s blatant planning for the benefit of his friends in real estate, Related is going to build a transit-accessible mixed-use complex of residences and office space. The subway will run to 34th St. and 11th Ave., and the area will change. A lukewarm response from Hells Kitchen shouldn’t be read to mean that residents don’t want and the city shouldn’t build a subway there. The 7 should stop at 10th Ave. no matter what.
Jun
22
Stores suffer while 2 Ave. residents earn a break
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Displaced Second Ave. residents can leave all of their construction woes behind.
With construction continuing apace underneath Second Ave. and the MTA maintaining its intention to finish Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway by 2016, attention has turned to the impact construction has on both residents and businesses. For years, businesses have bemoaned the disruption as sidewalk space is lost, and the general disarray of a construction zone has taken over. The MTA has been unable to find money to help out businesses, and although the Upper East Side will enjoy extreme growth when the subway opens, for now, business owners are finding progress rough.
Those who live near the construction zone are suffering as well. Many of the buildings along Second Ave. date from the early 20th Century, and decades of less-than-perfect maintenance have left many unstable. Although landlords are ultimately responsible for shoring up their buildings and keeping them up to code, the MTA has decided that its cheaper to pay for the engineering work than it is to fight building owners in court and risk delaying the subway.
But now the story emerges: As the MTA works to reinforce these buildings, the residents of Second Ave. must relocate, and the MTA is going to pay handsomely for it. According to a report in The Times, the authority is set to dole out payments well above market rate to appease displaced residents. Here’s how Michael Grynbaum puts it:
Say the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has decided to eject you from your Upper East Side walk-up for a month, maybe two, to help make way for the Second Avenue subway. You will be offered a choice. Stay in a nearby hotel, free, or skip the hotel and accept a rent stipend from the authority. A stipend that pays $5,000 a month.
That sum is for renters who live in a studio. For those in one-bedrooms, the authority will offer $6,000 a month. A two-bedroom renter gets $9,000. The authority will also pay $40 per person, per day, for meals. Moving and furniture storage costs are covered too, along with rent and utilities for the apartment you are leaving. Maybe giving your home to the transportation authority would not be so bad after all.
According to a recent report, these figures are well above market rate. In non-doorman apartment buildings, an Upper East Side studio goes for approximately $1700; a one-bedroom for $2200; and a two-bedroom for $2800. It is no coincidence that MTA is an anagram for ATM.
It gets better, though. Those who choose to eschew the stipend can instead take up the MTA on its hotel offer. The stipend prices correspond to hotel rates for the Marmara Manhattan, a high-end residential hotel on 94th St. Those who don’t want the trouble of finding their own places can stay at the hotel courtesy of the MTA. The authority stresses that these seemingly exorbitant prices are well worth the cost of avoiding delays as residents litigate their ways through the construction morass. Despite the gaudy prices, I’m inclined to agree.
Still, Second Ave. business owners cannot be too happy with this news. As Crains New York detailed yesterday, businesses are sufferingly greatly along the avenue. Some stores are reporting revenues down by nearly 50 percent, and restaurants that rely on outdoor seating are finding less available sidewalk space, fewer people willing to dine al fresco inside a construction zone or both. A new website at 2ndAvenueShopper .com is the latest effort from the Second Ave. Business Association, but the shop owners are fighting a losing battle. “There’s a stigma with Second Avenue now,” Cafe Greco owner Frank Sofroniou said.
The dueling headlines this week show the troubles of construction. The MTA must pay to relocate residents and finds it economically expedient to do so even with stipends well above market rate, but the MTA is under to obligation to offer financial support for struggling businesses. When the subway is open in six years, the entire neighborhood will be revitalized, but for now, it must adjust to the trials and tribulations of a semi-permanent state of flux.
Jun
21
SAS on WCBS TV
Posted by: | CommentsEarly this morning, WCBS TV reporter Magee Hickey put together a piece on the upcoming service cuts and the revelation that more cuts are coming this winter. She got some footage of a crowded 7 train, spoke with a few commuters not too keen on the cuts, and interviewed me. For those interested, the video is available here and the web story is available here. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the clip, but check it out nonetheless.
Jun
21
A facelift for the Jamaica Ave. elevated
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Business owners and residents who work and live underneath the Jamaica Ave. el have long called upon the MTA to spruce up the tracks. (Photo via The New York Times)
When the current BMT Jamaica elevated open east of Cypress Hills in 1918, the city’s papers hailed this subway expansion project. The new line, part of a city-wide expansion effort, provided a fast, five-cent trip from Jamaica and Richmond Hills to Manhattan for just $2 million, and the rail route had space for, in the words of a contemporaneous report, “a centre track to be constructed for use of express trains at some future time.”
The third track never arrived because subsequent engineering studies determined that the vibrations would damage the elevated structure, and since then, the BMT Jamaica line has often seemed to be an afterthought in the eyes of those in charge of the subway. For the past quarter century, alleged one area business owner who has pushed the MTA for renovations, the elevated has been allowed to degrade, and rusty supports and flaking paint mar an otherwise lively neighborhood.
“Our avenue is clean and bright and very vibrant,” Maria Thomson, executive director of the Woodhaven BID said to The Times
Thomson and her fellow Jamaica Ave. residents will soon get their wish. According to a report in the Daily News, the MTA will overhaul the Jamaica Ave. el, currently home to the J and Z trains. As part of a $20-$30 million capital renovation set to begin next year, the authority will “rehabilitate steel girders and paint almost 3 miles of the line between the Cypress Hills station and 130th St.” The project should last approximately 30 months, and business owners — who have been promised similar renovations in the past — are holding their breaths. Perhaps the octogenarian elevated will shine again.
Jun
21
Straphangers: Subway cars even dirtier this year
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As part of its budget-paring efforts, New York City Transit has allowed its system’s cleanliness to slip. Fewer cleaners are available to tend to stations and subway cars, and work shifts that are empty due to sick days are often left unfilled so that the authority does not need to pay out overtime. As such, the trains have become dirtier, a new report issued today by the Straphangers Campaign says.
The annual report, entitled the Shmutz Survey, found that only 50 percent of all subway cars were considered “clean” in 2009. That total represents a seven-percent drop from 2008. “It’s as clear as the grime on a subway car floor: MTA Transit cuts in cleaners has meant dirtier cars,” Gene Russianoff, campaign attorney for the Straphangers, said. “And more cuts to come means more dirt for subway riders.”
For those along Sixth Ave. looking forward to impending M train service from Middle Village to Forest Hills, the news is even worse. Cars along the M were rated the dirtiest with only 32 percent checking out as clean. On the other hand, those in use along the C and 6 lines were the system’s cleanest. A whopping 65 percent of cars along those two lines were deemed clean.
But what exactly does it mean for a car to be clean? According to the Campaign, workers examined the cleanliness of train cars at various times during the day from September to November. The campaign checks the floors and seats but does not account for litter. A “clean” rating means that cars were, according to guidelines, “basically dirt free” or had “light dirt” (“occasional ‘ground-in’ spots but generally clean”). Cars are not clean if they are “moderately” dirty with a “dingy floor [or] one or two sticky dry spots” or “heavily” dirty with “any opened or spilled food, hazardous (e.g. rolling bottles), or malodorous conditions, sticky wet spots, any seats unusable due to unclean conditions.”
The Straphangers’ findings clash with Transit’s own internal metrics. While the Straphangers found a deterioration in cleanliness, Transit’s own data found that 95 percent of cars — up from 91 percent in 2008 — were clean. The two sides could not pinpoint why such a great discrepancy between the two figures existed, but the MTA has long disputed the Straphangers’ methodology.
No matter the differences, the Straphangers urged the MTA to monitor the reductions in resources available for subway car cleanliness, and Transit, in a statement, acknowledged how its own financial troubles have led to dirtier trains. “With the current budget challenges being faced by MTA New York City Transit, we acknowledge that some subway car floors may not be as clean as our customers expect or deserve,” the agency said. “However, we will monitor conditions and shift forces as necessary. We also take the opportunity to remind customers to pitch in and help keep the subway as clean as possible by utilizing proper refuse receptacles.”
The last point is one worth examining. It’s true that the declining numbers of available cleaners will inevitably lead to dirtier cars and stations, but the riders themselves are part of the problem. As I wrote in April, many riders treat the subway car floors as their own personal garbage cans. If people were more mindful of their garbage, if they carried out what they carried in and didn’t spill food or drinks on the floor — in fact, if eating weren’t allowed in the subways — the trains would simply be cleaners. Perhaps in an era of fewer cleaners, that’s the way to keep the trains tidy.
After the jump, a list of findings from the Straphangers’ Shmutz Survey. For more on the cleanliness of subway cars, check out the two PDF tables attached to the report (1 and 2). Read More→
Jun
21
Under new load guidelines, Transit set to cut more service
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Rush hour on the L train. Crowding on some lines could get worse in the winter. (Photo via flickr user Tasayu Tasnaphun)
When the MTA announced what I termed its efficient slate of service cuts in January, the train line eliminations and bus route restructurings earned headlines while a technical provision about load guidelines went largely ignored. Everyone wanted to hear about the end of the V train, the death of the W and the official move to cut G service to Forest Hills. No one cared if a car would now be considered full when every seat is taken and 10-18 straphangers are standing.
Today, we care for the MTA has unveiled a small slate of service cuts that will take advantage of these new load guidelines and go into effect in December. The cuts will largely target some underutilized bus routes but will also involve the restructuring of rush hour service along the 7 line. When new train schedules are implemented in December, a handful of lines will see headways increased from one to 2.5 minutes. According to The Times, transit officials say these changes are “routine adjustments to account for trends in ridership, which has sagged in the weak economy.”
The MTA’s own internal documents tell a similar story. The MTA Board’s Transit Committee books — available here as a PDF — say that these service adjustments will save the MTA $4.1 million annually and will “more closely align subway service with customer demand and established guidelines for subway operations.” Conveniently, those established guidelines are the new load guidelines that go into effect next week and allow the MTA to cut train frequency while still operating trains within its own acceptable parameters.
As for the details, the cuts are sparse but have the potential to impact many early rush-hour commuters and off-peak riders. Transit will be scaling back service on 31 bus routes while increasing it on 14, but the biggest cuts are along the IRT Flushing Line. Express service will now begin at 6:20 a.m. instead of 5:30 a.m., and riders along the 7 will lose four early-morning express trains. To meet demand, Transit will add one local trip between 5:20 and 6:10 and two local trains between 9 and 10 a.m. These cuts will be into effect in December, and other lines affected include the 1, A, F, J, L and M trains. A chart showing the new train frequencies is below.
The MTA's revised load guidelines show less frequent off-peak service. Click the image for a chart easier to read.
These new service cuts raise a few questions. First, why is the MTA continuing to cut service? The answer to his one is simple: The authority remains a few hundred million dollars in debt, and Friday’s decision to save the Student MetroCard program does little to alleviate the financial pressure. As The Times reports, the authority’s tax revenue is falling below projection, and the agency still hasn’t figured out how to close its $400 million budget gap. Thus, more service cuts.
The second question is one few people want to ask: So what happens next? At this point, the MTA has revised its load guidelines, has cut off-peak service and is starting to whittle away at the fringes of rush hour traffic. Will the agency begin to pare down its peak-hour offerings? Are we in line for a fare hike? Even the carrot of $90 million in stimulus funds wouldn’t be enough to close the gap, and the Senate has yet to move on a potential transit operating aid package.
The MTA’s first proposed budget is due at the end of July, and it must contain a net-zero on the balance sheet. The service cuts or the fare hikes could be extreme, and John H. Banks, a six-year veteran of the MTA Board, put it best. “This is just the beginning,” he said to The Times. “Unless there is a dramatic change in what is anticipated from Albany and the city — which I don’t expect — we’re in for a bumpy ride, no pun intended.”
Jun
18
Weekend service advisories
Posted by: | CommentsYou know the drill. Here we go.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Saturday, June 19, from 11:30 p.m. Saturday, June 19 to 7 a.m. Sunday, June 20 and from 11:30 p.m. Sunday, June 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, free shuttle buses replace 2 trains between 96th Street and 149th Street-Grand concourse due to reconstruction of the track bridge at the underpass at 96th Street and switch renewal at the 142nd Street Junction. Note: All weekend 2 trains run local between Times Square-42nd Street and 96th Street. During the overnight hours, 2 trains are rerouted on the 1 between 96th Street and 137th Street.
From 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Saturday, June 19, from 11:30 p.m. Saturday, June 19 to 7 a.m. Sunday, June 20 and from 11:30 p.m. Sunday, June 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, free shuttle buses replace 3 trains between 148th Street and 96th Street due to reconstruction of the track bridge at the underpass at 96th Street and switch renewal at the 142nd Street Junction. The 1 and 2 replace 3 trains between 96th Street and Times Square-42nd Street, making all local stops. Note: During the day, 3 trains run local between Times Square-42nd Street and 96th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, downtown 46 trains run express from 125th Street to Grand Central-42nd Street due to conduit installation and plumbing work on track at 96th Street.
From 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturday, June 19 and from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sunday, June 20, 5 trains run every 20 minutes between Dyre Avenue and Bowling Green due to conduit installation Street in both directions due to work at the Fulton Street Transit Center.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, the last stop for some Bronx-bound 6 trains is 3rd Avenue-138th Street due to track panel installation.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, Pelham Bay Park-bound 6 trains run express from Hunts Point Avenue to Parkchester due to station rehabilitations and track panel installations. Note: Pelham Bay Park-bound 6 trains stop at Parkchester. Train doors open onto the Manhattan-bound platform.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, A trains run local between Euclid Avenue and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. due to Broadway-Lafayette to Bleecker Street Transfer Construction.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, June 19 and Sunday, June 20, there are no C trains operating between Manhattan and Brooklyn due to Broadway-Lafayette to Bleecker Street Transfer Construction. C trains are rerouted on the E between Canal Street and World Trade Center. Customers may take a downtown A at Canal Street to reach lower Manhattan. Customers to Brooklyn may take the A or F instead. Note: There are no C trains at Broadway-Nassau St. Brooklyn-bound F trains run on the A line from West 4th to Jay Sts.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, June 19 and Sunday, June 20, uptown C trains run express from Canal Street to 59th Street due to a track chip out north of West 4th Street.
From 11 p.m. Friday, June 18 to 6 a.m. Saturday, June 19, from 11 p.m. Saturday, June 19 to 7 a.m. Sunday, June 20, and from 11 p.m. Sunday, June 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, Manhattan-bound D trains skip 174th-175th Sts. and 170th Street due to a track chip out north of 170th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, D trains run local between 34th Street-Herald Square and West 4th Street due to 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal System Modernization.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, Bronx-bound D trains run on the N line from Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue to 36th Street in Brooklyn due to track work in the 38th Street yard.
From 12:01 a.m. Sunday, June 20 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, Manhattan-bound E trains run express from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to a track chip out north of Elmhurst Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, E trains are rerouted on the F in Manhattan and Queens due to the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal Modernization:
- There is no E service between 34th Street and World Trade Center.
- After leaving 5th Avenue, Manhattan-bound trains run on the F line from 47th-50th Sts. to 34th Street-Herald Square.
- Jamaica-bound E trains run on the F from 34th Street-Herald Square to 21st Street-Queensbridge; trains then resume service on the E to Jamaica Center.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, the Jamaica-bound platforms at 5th Avenue, Lexington Avenue-53rd Street and 23rd Street-Ely Avenue stations are closed due to the 5th Avenue Interlocking Signal modernization. Customers should take the R6 or free shuttle bus. Note: Free shuttle buses connect the Court Square/23rd Street-Ely Avenue, Queens Plaza, and 21st Street-Queensbridge stations.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, Brooklyn-bound F trains run on the A line from West 4th Street to Jay Street due to Broadway-Lafayette to Bleecker Street Transfer Construction.
There are no G trains between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Court Square due to a track chip out north of Elmhurst Avenue. During the day, customers should take the R. Late nights, customers should take the E. Note: Manhattan-bound E and R trains run express from Forest Hills-71st Avenue all weekend. Jamaica-bound E trains run on the F line from 34th Street-Herald Square to 21st Street-Queensbridge, then local from 36th Street to 71st Avenue. For Court Street and Queens Plaza, transfer to a shuttle bus at 21st Street-Queensbridge – all weekend.
From 3:30 a.m. Saturday, June 19 to 10 p.m. Sunday, June 20, there are no J trains between Jamaica Center and Crescent Street due to track panel installation north of Woodhaven Boulevard. E trains and free shuttle buses provide alternate service.
From 11 p.m. Friday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, uptown Q trains run local from Times Square-42nd Street to 57th Street-7th Avenue due to a concrete pour north of Times Square.
From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Sunday, June 20, Manhattan-bound R trains run express from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to a track chip out north of Elmhurst Avenue.
From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, June 19 and Sunday June 20 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, June 21, the 42nd Street S Shuttle runs overnight due to switch renewal at the 142nd Street Junction.
Jun
18
At Fulton St., a building grows and a name changes
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The Fulton St. Transit Center hasn’t made headlines lately, and for that, the MTA must be thrilled. As the decade of cost overruns and missed deadlines, the $1.4 billion complex is on pace for a June 2014 opening. Today, DNA Info’s Julie Shapiro took a tour behind the construction fence, and the MTA runs through the regular rigamarole of construction. In a nutshell, everything is on target.
I, meanwhile, have another glimpse from above. Peter from Ink Lake blog sent in the photo atop this post, and the shape of the transit center is coming into view. Below the construction equipment, however, is something even more intriguing. One part of the Fulton St. complex is undergoing a name change.
For years, the A/C IND stop at Fulton St. hasn’t been called such. It is instead the Broadway/Nassau St. stop, and the nomenclature has been confusing for decades. As Peter noted earlier this week, this station stop will soon be called Fulton St. as well. In fact, the tiles in the walls of Brooklyn-bound side already say Fulton St. while the uptown side of the station still says Broadway/Nassau.
The odd naming patterns, says Peter, make sense historically. He writes, “All the lines except the IND, run perpendicular to Fulton Street, and thus intersect it. The A/C, runs along Fulton, and the streets it intersects with are Broadway on the western end of the station and Nassau in the easterly direction.” While one Subchatter criticizes the typography, the new name will unify the station and reduce confusion. Plus, says, Transit, because this deep platform no longer has its own street entrances, the different name served no purpose.
For a glimpse at the before-and-after photos of the station wall, click through the jump. Read More→
Jun
18
In the company of retired and forgotten train lines
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New Yorkers tend to view the subway map and the system’s current routes as something set in stone. The W has always run from Lower Manhattan to Astoria; the Q has now and forever been the Brighton local to Coney Island. In truth, it takes an encyclopedia memory of subway history to remember the myriad service changes and now-defunct routes that litter transit history. Anyone want to hop the QJ or NX with me?
Over the years, I’ve taken a look at various subway lines lost to history that have a pesky habit of cropping up on subway roll signs when they shouldn’t. We’ve explored the H train, the Grand St. shuttle, the unlucky 13 train, the brown diamond R train and the various routings for the B train, just to name a few.
With the V and W set to join the great subway letters of history, Transit will be eliminating route designations for the first time since it killed the 9 train in the mid 2000s. As part of the subway funeral, Heather Haddon explored the history of subway designations. She writes:
When the V and W trains are eliminated later this month, they will join the KK, NX and about two dozen other lines that have pulled out of the station for the last time. “There hasn’t been a lot of stability to be perfectly honest,”said Glenn Lunden, a transit agency director for planning.
Changing demographics, budget issues and big construction jobs force planners to perpetually tinker with the subway routes, said Lunden, an MTA veteran. The train names have always been a work in progress. Back in the 1930s, NYC Transit first start assigning letters to the lines, picking roughly in alphabetical order. Local routes were given double letters and an express a single one, like the “A” and “AA” running along Eighth Avenue. The numbers were first added in the 1940s, but it took 20 years to fully phase them in, Lunden said.
At its peak in 1967, the MTA was home to 34 different routes, including such confusing lines as the MJ, QJ and six different “SS” shuttles. “It was all very complicated,” said Kevin Walsh, editor of the Forgotten New York website.
Haddon tells a tale familiar to us today. Amidst budget crises in the 1970s, the MTA started to cut back on train designations, and by 1985, a so-called “beautification committee” had successfully eliminated the last of the double letter routes. “They didn’t mean much by that time,” one-time MTA planner Robert Olmstead said.
The piece concludes with an interesting sidebar as well. Haddon explores how the MTA has revived route designations but won’t assign I, O, P, U, Y or X to routes because they’re either full words or resemble bullets already in use. The 8 as well will never see the light of day because it sounds confusingly similar to the letter A.
When the V and the W depart, they will have lived short and controversial lives. For a few weeks, we’ll miss the, but then, they’re just join the QB and RR trains as remnants of a bygone era living only in subway map archives throughout the city.
Jun
18
A deal to save Student MetroCards but few winners
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After months of political threats and public outrage, the MTA and New York State have tentatively come to terms on a deal that will save the free Student MetroCard program, numerous sources say this evening. According to reports, the state will kick in just $25 million and provide the MTA with a few more incentives — including a higher cap on borrowing and a watered down bus lane enforcement measure — while the city will maintain its $45 million contribution. The deal comes just six days before the MTA Board was set to vote on a plan to phase out the free rides. Instead, the MTA will cash in its biggest political chit while getting too little in return.
News of the deal first broke late this evening when the Daily News spoke with the legislatures involved. At the time, those in Albany hesitated to confirm the details. “There’s no deal, but we’re getting close,” Richard Brodsky said. He later told NBC New York that the two sides were trying to agree on a dollar figure and “some other things the MTA says it wants.”
Shortly after midnight this morning, however, the MTA released a statement proclaiming that the Student MetroCards had been saved. To fund the student cards, the city and state will pay the MTA a combined $70 million. One year ago, before the state unilaterally cut its contributions, the MTA could count on $90 million from Albany and City Hall — the same amount it took in when the program first started in 1996. The MTA had maintained that the cost of providing free rides along with the revenue opportunities lost by not charging students amounted to well over $200 million, but with the state suffering through its own financial crisis, the MTA will have to pick up the difference for now.
Said the Authority in a statement:
The MTA believes that school children should not have to pay to travel to school,” the authority’s statement said, “but that funding this transportation is the responsibility of the State and City, as it is throughout the state…
While we had hoped that the State and City would pay the total cost of this program, we recognize the very difficult financial environment for not only the State and City, but for the hundreds of thousands of families in New York City who frankly could not afford to pay the added cost of transit fares for school transportation. We heard loud and clear at our public hearings, in meetings with student leaders and in protests around the city, that charging students would have a life-changing impact on the ability of New Yorkers to receive a quality education.
In light of these unbearable impacts, the MTA has decided to abandon the proposal to charge students for travel to and from school. As a result, the budget deficit that we are facing will increase, but the alternative is worse. Further actions needed to close this gap will be addressed when our preliminary financial plan is released in July.
What the MTA wanted though it won’t get. The MTA wanted a fully-funded program. The MTA wants a fully-funded capital plan, a source of revenue to avert service cuts and the same commitment to transit that Albany is willing to give to the state’s roads. Instead, the MTA will get less money from the state for Student MetroCards in 2010 than it did from 1996-2008.
Meanwhile, in Albany, the politicians continue to miss the point. Brodsky bashed the MTA for “using” students as a political pawn, one of the few options actually available to the beleaguered authority. “These kids should never have been used as a pawn in a larger dispute about MTA funding,” he said to The Times. He later qualified that statement and recognized that the MTA is in a dire financial situation as well. “The MTA needs and deserves more money, but using the students as a bargaining chip,” he said, “was never a good idea.”
In actuality, using the Student MetroCards was a great idea. What Albany or City Hall has never addressed is the why of it. Why should the MTA pay for the city and state to lean on the subways as a glorified free school bus without paying for the costs of it? The MTA should not be a pawn of the sagging public education system; it is a transit agency. Running trains frequently and on time should be more of a priority than free travel for 585,000 students. If the city and state will pay, the program should survive; if not, the MTA should cut it. It shouldn’t let the state short-charge them in exchange for meager political promises.
So where does this tentative deal leave the MTA? On the plus side, the authority will be allowed to use cameras to guard the new bus lanes. The latest measure, however, is a half-hearted excuse for true enforcement, and it covers only 50 miles of bus lanes. Financially, the authority will be permitted to up its borrowing level. This financial flexibility may help it cover some capital costs in the short term, but with $2 billion in debt service currently due, the MTA is learning first hand how harmful short-term borrowing can be to the bottom line. The students don’t have to pay this year, but the rest of us will foot the bill in the future as it comes due.
Finally, the kicker: Albany doesn’t expect the MTA to keep the Student MetroCards free for more than just another year. Since the MTA evaluates its budget on a year-to-year basis, it can threaten to revoke the program all over again in 2011, and it makes little financial sense for the authority to provide free rides. As Brodsky said to NBC, “All [the MTA] can guarantee legally is a year. I think you’re going to see them take the whole thing off the table. The MTA needs more help than we’re giving them.”
Keeping an even keel about her, Neysa Pranger of the Regional Plan Association called this deal “good news for students” and “questionable news for riders and the fares.” That it is. That it is indeed.
