MTA doesn’t trust its system for ‘important’ trips

The MTA doesn’t want its workers waiting and waiting and waiting for the train that never shows up. (Courtesy of flickr user Vincenzo F)

Sometimes, the stories about the MTA are so ridiculous, they write themselves. This story — one in which the MTA doesn’t even trust its own service — is one of those.

You see, the MTA doesn’t want its employees late for important events like random drug tests. So instead of having them use the subway for free, the Transit Authority sinks hundreds of thousands of dollars into, get this, taxi rides for its transit employees. Head, meet brick wall.

The Post’s Jeremy Olshan, transit reporter extraordinaire, broke this story today. Olshan reports:

When the MTA wants to guarantee its employees get to their destination, they skip the bus and subway and call a taxi. Rather than take a free ride on the largest public transportation network in the nation, the thousands of transit workers called for random drug tests are required to take a car service.

This week, the MTA board is set to approve $285,000 in contracts with four city car services to provide the transportation.

So there you go, folks, straight from the mouths of the MTA Board members: Take a cab if you want to get anywhere quickly. I bet Mayor Bloomberg isn’t too thrilled with this news coming out after his PLANYC2030 announcement that was designed to prop up public transportation in New York City.

The MTA acted quickly to defend its policy. The Authority noted that some bus depots are so far away from the testing facility at 180 Livingston St. in Brooklyn that workers wouldn’t be able to get there within the mandatory two-hour reporting window. Meanwhile, as Google Maps shows, 180 Livingston St. is within walking distance of not just one or two subway lines but twelve different lines.

Maybe — maybe — if someone were coming from the far reaches of the Bronx or Queens, I would buy the two-hour excuse. But does that mean every single worker has to take a cab? Not in an age of rampant budget deficits. Every little bit counts.

Eric Giola, City Council member, summed it up best: “It seems like more Pataki-era waste and mismanagement that can be easily corrected by this new administration. While you want to ensure the accuracy of drug tests, $300,000 in taxi bills is over the top and unnecessary.”

I can’t make this stuff up, folks.