Don’t jump on the tracks to pick up your stuff. Just in case you didn’t know that, Jim Dwyer, former subway columnist, reminds us why it’s better to — gasp — trust MTA employees instead of climbing into the track beds to retrieve your stuff.

For years now, the MTA has seen ridership numbers skyrocket, and as the NYC Transit performance indicators show, subway ridership is again up this year. The MTA, as Matthew Sweeney reports today, however believes ridership numbers could level off in 2009. Citing higher unemployment rates and a lessening of the impact of high gas prices, [...]

Remember when, last month, David Gantt singlehandedly squashed any effective BRT-lane enforcement measures? Of course you do. Well, so does The New York Times, and today, a full 36 days after Gantt’s back-room dealings, the newspaper of record decided to opine on the issue. In an editorial today, the Gray Lady says that Gantt must [...]

While the jury is still out, NYC Transit plans to expand their line manager program. Howard Roberts, head of NYCT, and Elliot “Lee” Sander, MTA chief, say that the line manager program will help, in the words of Pete Donohue, “reorganiz[e] and streamlin[e] the underground bureaucracy.” But critics note that the two current test lines [...]

With train delays reaching record highs — more on that in a bit — the MTA is turning to an old idea to combat sluggish service. According to Marlene Naanes, the transit authority may resurrect skip-stop service to improve train speeds and ease overcrowding. The MTA started skip-stop service in 1989 when residents in areas [...]

Here’s the breaking news: The MTA will seek what The Times is calling substantial fare hikes in 2009. This will be just the second time in history that the MTA will seek to raise the fares in consecutive years. More on this breaking — and dismaying — news later.

While Gov. David Patterson has replaced many of Eliot Spitzer’s political appointees — including the head of the Port Authority — New York’s newest gov has no plans to replace MTA chief Elliot Sander. For MTA watchers, this should come as good news. Despite presiding over a period of extreme economic uncertainty, Sander has done [...]

With fare evasion fines now sitting at $100 and an experiment in place in the Bronx that could revolutionize bus service in New York, the MTA is going to ramp up its fare-evasion countermeasures. According to Daily News reporters Tayanika Samuels and Pete Donohue, transit officials are going to stop warning people who don’t pay [...]

This afternoon, I had to run an errand during lunch time. I left my office on 9th Ave. between 15th and 16th and walked over to 14th St. As I crossed 14th St. and 9th Ave., I passed in front of an M14D, waiting for the light to change so it could turn onto 14th [...]

With the MLB All Star Game parade upon us, Sixth Ave. from 42nd St. to 59th St. is closed, and the surrounding area is a mess. The MTA has tossed up a bunch of service alerts mostly relating to bus service along crosstown routes and up Sixth Ave, but certain subway entrances at Times Square, [...]