Vornado says they will fund and maintain transit improvements underneath 15 Penn Plaza. (Click to enlarge)

The relationship between transit and development in New York City is a tight one indeed. While early subway routes snaked their way through population centers of the day, the expansion of the system throughout Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx spurred on dense development in areas of the city far from Manhattan’s Central Business District. It’s no stretch, then, to say that without the subways, the city wouldn’t be as big and as far-flung as it is, and landlords wouldn’t be nearly as well off as they are.

Why then do management companies and building owners have such a tenuous relationship with transit investments? Those constructing new buildings and complexes that will exert a pull on the transit system must contribute to expansion plans, but those landlords who enjoy the benefits of transit improvements are reluctant to pay for routine maintenance and upkeep. The Union Square escalator saga is a prime example of that phenomenon.

In the Real Estate section in today’s Times, Julie Satow explores how the MTA is trying to work with developers to improve investment in transit-related properties and encourage better cooperation between interested the parties. She writes:

There are more than 600 miles of subway track and hundreds of stations in New York City, and zoning requires that developers in high-density areas like Midtown Manhattan, Union Square and Downtown Brooklyn move nearby subway entrances into their property lines and renovate them. As a result, private entities may be responsible for public services, a situation that some experts say is not always ideal.

“The M.T.A. has learned the hard way that it is one thing to ask a developer to make an upfront capital investment, and quite another one to maintain something on a day-to-day basis over the years,” said Juliette Michaelson , the director of strategic initiatives at the Regional Plan Association, a policy, research and advocacy group. “In 10 years, when that escalator fails, who fixes it? These details must be worked out in advance.”

To improve its dealings with private developers, two years ago the transit authority quietly opened a three-person Office of Transit-Oriented Development. It hired Robert Paley, a real estate expert who spent time in the private sector — as an executive at AvalonBay Communities he helped develop Avalon Chrystie Place on East Houston Street — and also worked previously at the M.T.A. on projects like the Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn.

Paley, writes Satow, is in charge of coordinating “the many public agencies and other stakeholders that are often involved in large, privately financed transit improvements.” His role, he says, is taking on increased importance as the real estate market begins to rebound. “It was very quiet when I first came onboard, but in the past several months, the phone in our office has begun ringing, indicating to me that developers are warming to the idea of building again,” Paley said.

The test case for the authority’s new approach will be Vornado’s plan to reopen the Gimbel’s Passageway as part of its 15 Penn Plaza development. Vornado is hoping to build a two-million square foot office building at 15 Penn Plaza, and in exchange for gaining an exemption to the zoning regulations, it has pledged to fund extensive transit improvements at Penn Station.

Paley wants to hold the company’s feet to the fire. “if the construction starts, and the building moves quickly, there is a risk that the public improvements that were promised will get left behind,” he said of efforts to secure a firm plan for the upgrades before 15 Penn Plaza rises.

Still, as Satow highlights, even these pre-build deals don’t fully address issues of continuing maintenance. That’s the real problem. Escalators that remain broken and never get repaired are a blight upon the system and inconvenient as well. Entrances that remain closed over disputes between upkeep — such as the one at the north end of the 50th St. station along 8th Ave. — lend only the illusion of access. Developers and building owners should be more committed partners in this dance, and hopefully, Paley can realize that goal.

When the MTA readied its service cuts in late June of 2010, the media coverage focused on those who were going to eschew the subway for surface transit. An amNew York article found a few commuters who said they were going to bike while other stories featured interviews with people claiming they would begin to drive instead. Shockingly, that has not come to pass.

In its Transit Committee books for this week’s upcoming meeting (pdf), the MTA has released its year-end data for 2010, and the numbers show growth across the board that persisted past the date of the fare hikes. Subway ridership hit 1.6 billion in 2010, the second-highest total since 1950, and the MTA drew in over $3.3 billion in fare box revenue. Although the authority’s final ridership totals were 0.1 percent below expectations, the number represents a 0.2 percent increase over 2009.

Breaking it down, we see subways that are getting more crowded as buses grow emptier. Weekday subway ridership hit 5.2 million per day, the second highest total since 1950 and a 1.4 percent increase over 2009, while weekend ridership, despite myriad service changes and generally poor service, reached a two-day total average of 5.36 million. Saturday ridership climbed above 3 million while Sunday hit 2.3 million. That is, says the MTA, the highest weekend total in over 40 years.

Buses, meanwhile, have not been as lucky. Ridership in 2010 decreased by 2.8 percent to 696.9 million. Perhaps New Yorkers are growing fed up with bus service. When it’s routinely faster to walk over significant distances, only those physically unable to do so will hit the pavement. Pre-board fare payment systems can’t come soon enough.

The MTA attributes the increased ridership to the economy, and in doing so, they present the below graph. It clearly shows how ridership — the dashed line — tracks with changes in the city’s job figures. If ridership is going up, so too must be the city’s key employment numbers.

Subway ridership aligns closely with the state of employment in New York City.

In the fare department, the MTA saw the average cost it charges per ride go up. In 2009, the MTA drew in $1.485 per swipe while in 2010, that climbed to $1.562. That increase is directly attributable to the full-year effect of the June 28, 2009 fare increases. Interestingly, now over 33 percent of riders use the 30-day unlimited ride card. That is, I believe, a high-water mark, and I’ll be curious to see what the new triple-digit price tag does to that figure over the next few months.

Meanwhile, despite the added revenue, the fare still remains well below 1996 levels. That year, prior to the introduction of discounted MetroCards, the MTA drew in $1.38 per swipe. In numbers adjusted for inflation, they’re earning just $1.03 per swipe in 1996 dollars. As much as we bemoan the fare hikes, the subway is still a very good deal.

So what then can we see from all of us? First, it appears as though the service cuts had a negligible impact on ridership. While the pre-cut numbers in May showed ridership on the rise, so too did the months after the service cuts. In fact, the 12-month rolling averages have been increasing since July. Apparently, cutting service doesn’t impact transit usage as much as many feared. That is, however, a dangerous lesson to learn. While it highlights the inelasticity of transit demand, at some point, there will be a breaking point, and cuts will begin to impact transit usage.

Second, the city’s buses suffered a far worse fate than the subways in the cuts. While bus ridership has been declining nearly steadily since December 2008, the cuts have not stopped the bleeding. While bus ridership figures have nearly leveled out, the cuts — along with the inherent problems with bus service I mentioned above — ensured that those numbers would not increase at all this year.

Politically and economically, 2010 was a terrible year for the MTA, but New Yorkers need their transit. People are waiting longer for trains, but they’re still coming out in droves. When will our city and state politicians realize that?

For the MTA, 2011 will again be able making every dollar count. (Click the image for to read the PDF report.)

For the MTA, 2010 was not what I would consider to be a banner year. The authority had to enact sweeping service cuts in June that saw two subway lines and countless bus routes wiped from the map, and then in December, the agency jacked up fares for the third year in a row. Still, spurred on by an early January promise, Jay Walder did his best to make every dollar count, and he’s doing it again this year even as the MTA’s financial picture darkens.

This past Friday afternoon, Walder and the MTA released their agenda for 2011. In keeping with the 2010 theme, this year’s report is again titled “Making Every Dollar Count,” and it builds upon the progress the MTA made last year in both improving its customer relations and shoring up its bloated bureaucracy. “It’s a new year, but our focus remains unchanged,” Walder said in a statement. “We will make every dollar count. We will continue to cut costs to create a more efficient MTA. We will continue to improve service for our customers. We brought change to the MTA in 2010, and we’re going to build on that success in 2011.”

While acknowledging the financial problems facing the MTA and the current capital funding crunch, Walder in his report highlights the MTA’s savings from 2010. “As our customers faced service reductions and an end-of-year fare increase, we sought to ensure that we were doing everything possible to reduce operating expenses. This effort—the most aggressive cost-cutting in the history of the MTA—helped limit the impact of a devastating economic downturn,” the report says. “The emergency cost cutting we implemented in 2010 will set the stage for a more fundamental reshaping of the MTA, with cumulative cost savings expected to reach $3.8 billion in 2011.”

Of course, that’s well and good. We’ve heard a lot about the MTA’s push for internal reorganization, and we know what the authority is doing to save dollars and what it could be doing to save even more. That’s not the sexy part. Yet, within the 2011 report — available here as a PDF — are the progress items the MTA hopes to implement this year. The highlights involve better bus service and more real-time information. A new fare card is on the horizon as well. Let’s see how this shakes down.

Bus Improvements: According to the MTA, 2011 will be a banner year for bus improvements. Leading the charge will be bus lane cameras for 34th St. and Fordham Road in the Bronx. After a successful test run on 1st and 2nd Aves. this fall, the cameras have been shown to reduce congestion in the bus lanes. To expand this program though, the MTA will need authorization from Albany, and that has been slow to come. Buses will also soon sport security cameras to keep passengers and drivers safe.

Real-Time Information: Meanwhile, after years of no progress, real-time information is coming quickly to the MTA. Later this year, says the report, every bus on Staten Island will be equipped with BusTime, which tells riders via their phones or computers exactly where every bus in the borough will be. Signs on the B63 in Brooklyn promise BusTime later this week as well. Taking the guess work out of waiting for the bus will make it a more appealing mode of transportation.

Underground, the MTA is promising that over 200 stations will have countdown clocks by the end of 2011. Those include stations along the 7, which may be in line for an RFID-based train tracking system, and along Queens Boulevard. The real-time information screens in place at a few stations will expand to other key areas around the system as well, and Metro-North will join the LIRR on the MTA’s CooCoo service.

Station and Fare Improvements: Walder also tackled the MTA’s fare structure and physical plant as well. He anticipates that the next-generation fare payment system will be on all buses and subways by 2015. This year, the MTA will “begin entering into contracts for the behind-the-scenes work” that will allow for seamless integration amongst Transit, PATH, New Jersey Transit, LIRR and Metro-North. That’s an effort years in the making.

Finally, the MTA is vowing to clean up some subway stations. In 2010, the authority targeted 19 of its heavily-used stations for constant cleaning, and this year, the effort is going to expand to 96th St. on Broadway, the new Jay St.-MetroTech complex and 14 other stops. The authority is vowing “better-maintained stations,” but this is a prime example of something they must show instead of tell. As I mentioned over the weekend, the MTA’s physical plant is in terrible shape.

The report ends with a vow to produce a “leaner, more efficient and effective MTA,” and Walder has to stress that. Transit activists are worried about upcoming New York State budget cuts, and the five-year capital plan must be taken up again in Albany this year. The MTA is trying to move forward under difficult circumstances, and the economic storm may be gathering to halt this progress.

For now, the authority is talking a good game and producing results. To change public perception is nearly impossible, but if the MTA can show that it needs that capital investment and political support to keep improving services and providing transportation, perhaps Albany will listen. If every dollar counts, those that do trickle down to our transit system will be used for the good of us all.