Subway Advertising

Photo of the Day: Juicy ads at Grand Central

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 20, 2011

Photo by Benjamin Kabak

When: June 15, 2011
Where: The staircase leading up from the Shuttle platform to the entryway to Grand Central Terminal at 42nd St.

I found myself last week walking past the Shuttle platform after entering the subway on 42nd St. and Madison Ave. As I neared the walkway to the IRT complex, I spied these in-staircase advertisements on the steps leading up from the Shuttle platform. As an orange juice connoisseur, I thoroughly enjoyed the subject matter, but what struck me even more so was the presentation of the advertising. I believe this is the first time the MTA has placed a billboard ad inside a staircase.

The ad, on display just a few yards from a train wrapped in a promotional campaign for Lady Gaga’s latest album, works best from a distance. As harried straphangers approach the staircases, the ad comes into view, and Simply Orange is on display for everyone to see. This presentation too is appropriate only for stations that have expansive views and staircases. It wouldn’t work at, say, the 79th St. entrance along the 1 train because those exiting the station never see the staircase from a distance.

As we know, the MTA is trying to eke as many advertising dollars as possible out of the subway system, and the 42nd St. corridor is the ideal location for it. Grand Central is the system’s second busiest subway station, and commuters bound for Midtown office buildings filter through the Shuttle station. This isn’t the first advertisement to adorn the staircase, and we’ll have to see where else these types of ads end up. For now, I’m a fan of the presentation even as advertising becomes more pervasive throughout the system.

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AsidesLIRRMetro-North

State legislature approves railroad platform smoking ban

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 20, 2011

As part of its flurry of late-session legislation last week, the State Senate approved a measure that would ban smoking on all LIRR and Metro-North platforms. Sponsored by Sen. Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. from Merrick, the bill (S3461C) mimics a move made by both New York City and New Jersey within the past few years. It would ban smoking in outdoor spaces for ticketing, boarding or platforms of train stations operated by the MTA or its subsidiaries, and it has already cleared the state Assembly.

“Thousands of commuters are being exposed to harmful second-hand smoke every time someone lights up a cigarette while waiting for a train,” Senator Fuschillo, a leading anti-smoking representative, said. “Second-hand smoke exposure can lead to a number of different health problems, even among non-smokers. New York needs to expand its own anti-smoking laws to better protect people from second-hand smoke.”

The bill has garnered the support of the American Cancer Society and will now be presented to Gov. Cuomo for his signature. Enforcement, of course, remains another matter entirely.

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Taxis

Action on livery cab hails could come from Albany

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 20, 2011

As the City Council, beholden to the interests of those who own taxi medallions, has delayed action on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to expand taxi service beyond the cozy confines of Manhattan, the mayor has found an ally in Albany. In an attempt to bypass the city’s homerule and with prodding by the mayor, the Assembly and Senate are both considering a bill that would legalize street hails for livery cabs north of 96th St. and outside of Manhattan. With the legislative session set to end this week, action could come quickly.

Both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported on this news late Sunday night, and the full text of the bill under consideration is available here. The move is essentially an end run around the City Council. Andrew Grossman from The Journal has more:

Lawmakers are on the verge of approving sweeping changes to New York’s taxi industry with the aim of improving cab service outside Manhattan. The changes include the creation of 30,000 permits that would allow owners to pick up passengers who hail them on the street everywhere in the city except at the airports and below West 110th Street and East 96th Street in Manhattan. Those permits would sell for $1,500, and the new cabs would likely have meters.

Currently, only yellow cabs with one of the 13,000 medallions—which sell for more than $800,000 on the open market—tacked to their hoods are allowed to pick up passengers who haven’t called ahead. But city data show that yellow taxis rarely stray beyond the airports and Manhattan south of Harlem. Everywhere else, New Yorkers looking to hire a car usually either have to call ahead or flag down a livery cab. The latter practice is illegal but common.

Since January, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been trying to change that by creating a new kind of taxi that could be hailed legally in places where pickups that are currently illegal often happen. Each new plan presented by the city has angered a different part of the taxi industry. A version of the plan similar to the one under consideration in Albany was stopped by the yellow-taxi industry’s allies in the City Council earlier this year. But the bills lawmakers could vote on early this week don’t require council approval because they deem improved taxi service in the outer boroughs a matter of “substantial state concern.”

If Albany acts on this measure, you can bet that lawsuits will follow nearly immediately. The bill itself says that the “substantial state concern” focuses around the “public health, safety and welfare of the residents of the state of New York traveling to, from and within the city of New York.” It claims that “the majority of residents and nonresidents of the city of New York do not currently have access to the necessary amount of legal, licensed taxicabs available for street hails when traveling within the city.” Despite the truth of that statement, relying on that claim for purposes of overriding home rule in regards to a matter entirely within the purview of the City of New York may be a different (legal) matter all together.

Ultimate legal challenges aside, the livery and yellow cab industries are, as The Times notes, springing into action. Yellow cab owners worry about the devaluing of their medallions. “If one livery car has a meter in it and has the right to pick up street hails, every single livery in New York City will look at that as a green light to do what they are doing illegally now, and that’s picking up our fares,” David Pollack said. “This is life and death for the yellow taxi industry.”

But it isn’t. In fact, recent news coverages has more than adequately exposed the contradictions inherent in Pollack’s hyperbole. Yellow taxi drivers often refuse to take folks to non-Manhattan destinations and rarely cruise for hails in those neighborhoods because it’s just not worth it. In fact, some in the taxi industry say outer borough fares are just three percent of their total take. These yellow cab drivers can’t complain about longer trips over bridges and through tunnels while the medallion owners complain about competition. Something has to give. (For more, check out Cap’n Transit’s recent post.)

Meanwhile, the livery owners aren’t too keen on this plan either. Fernando Mateo of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers summed it up: “We are in disbelief that this is what we’re winding up with. It’s better that we keep the status quo as it is. Why create change? It’s not right. I don’t understand what the mentality at City Hall really is right now.” The federation seems to be concerned that the cost of the medallion will price some livery drivers out. Those who can afford it will legally be allowed to pick up street hails while others will fall behind.

Ultimately, then, this seems to be an imperfect solution to a problem that no one is willing to tackle properly. Taxis play a vital role in urban life where people can’t afford to and don’t want to rely on personal automobiles for trips that aren’t suitable for buses or subways. People in New York City need taxis to play a role travel, and right now, medallion owners, yellow cab drivers and livery cab companies do not see their interested aligned with each other or with the 7 million of us who live outside of Manhattan or north of 96th St. This plan seems to be a solution, but it likely isn’t the solution.

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Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting service on 16 lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 17, 2011

Busy weekend of work again. Watch the IRT lines in particular. Subway Weekender has the map.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, there are no 1 trains between 242nd Street and 168th Street due to station and structural rehab work at Dyckman Street, canopy and platform edge work from 242nd Street to 207th Street. A trains, free shuttle buses and the M3 bus provide alternate service. Free shuttle buses operate:

  • On Broadway between 242nd Street and 215th Street, then connect to the 207th Street A station.
  • On St. Nicholas Avenue between 191st Street and 168th Street


From 4 a.m. Saturday, June 18 to 10 p.m. Sunday, June 19, Bronx-bound 2 trains run express from 3rd Avenue-149th Street to East 180th Street due to track panel installation at Freeman Street and 174th Street.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19, Brooklyn-bound 3 trains run express from Atlantic Avenue to Utica Avenue due to cable installation at Nostrand Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, downtown 4 trains run express from Grand Central-42nd Street to Brooklyn Bridge due to gap filler replacement at 14th Street-Union Square.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, Brooklyn-bound 4 trains run express from Atlantic Avenue to Utica Avenue due to cable installation at Nostrand Avenue.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, there is no 5 service between Dyre Avenue and 149th Street-Grand Concourse due to track work south of Morris Park. Free shuttle buses and 2 trains provide alternate service. Shuttle buses replace the 5 between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street. Customers may transfer between the shuttle bus and the 2 train at East 180th Street. The 2 makes all 5 stops between East 180th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse. Note: 5 trains run every 20 minutes between Bowling Green and 149th Street-Grand Concourse.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, downtown 6 trains run express from Grand Central-42nd Street to Brooklyn Bridge due to gap filler replacement at 14th Street-Union Square.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, Manhattan-bound 6 trains skip Morrison Avenue-Soundview and Whitlock Avenue due to station rehabilitation at Elder Avenue and St. Lawrence Avenue.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, overnight uptown A and daytime uptown C trains operate express between 59th Street-Columbus Circle and 125th Street due to track work south of 110th Street. There is no uptown local service at 72nd, 81st, 86th, 96th, 103rd, 110th, and 116th Streets this weekend. Customers traveling to these stations may take the uptown A or C to 125th Street and transfer to a downtown train. Customers heading to stations above 125th Street from these stations may take the downtown A or C to 59th Street and transfer to an uptown train.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, Brooklyn-bound A trains run local from 59th Street-Columbus Circle to West 4th Street, then are rerouted to the F line to Jay Street-MetroTech due to escalator installation work at Fulton Street and substation work at Jay Street-MetroTech.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, Brooklyn-bound C trains run on the F line from West 4th Street to Jay Street-MetroTech due to escalator installation work at Fulton Street and substation work at Jay Street-MetroTech.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, Brooklyn-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue (express during the day) due to structural repair/station rehabilitation from 71st Street to Bay 50th Street and ADA work at Bay Parkway.


From 5:30 a.m. to 12 noon, Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19, Manhattan-bound E trains run local from Union Turnpike to Roosevelt Avenue due to cable replacement.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, Queens-bound F trains run on the A line from Jay Street-MetroTech to West 4th Street due to work on the Broadway-Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street transfer connection.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 18 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, Brooklyn-bound F trains run on the M line from 36th Street in Queens to 47th-50th Sts. due to station rehab work at Lexington Avenue-63rd Street.


From 12:01 a.m. to 12 noon, Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19, Manhattan-bound F trains run local from Union Turnpike to Roosevelt Avenue due to cable replacement.


From 11 p.m. Friday, June 17 to 5 a.m. Monday June 20, there are no G trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Church Avenue due to track work north of Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. G trains operate in two sections:

  • Between Court Square and Bedford-Nostrand Avs and
  • Between Bedford-Nostrand Avs and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. (every 20 minutes)

Note: The A provides connecting service between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Jay Street-MetroTech.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 17 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, L trains run in two sections due to track work between Union Square and 6th Avenue:

  • Between Rockaway Parkway and Bedford Avenue and
  • Between Bedford Avenue and Union Square (every 16 minutes). Trains skip 3rd Avenue in both directions.

M14 and free shuttle buses (overnight) replace trains between 1st and 8th Avenues.


From 12:01 a.m. to 6:30 a.m., Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19 and from 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, June 20, Brooklyn-bound N trains operate over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to installation of tactile and platform tiles at Cortlandt Street. There are no Brooklyn-bound trains at City Hall, Rector Street, Whitehall Street, Court Street and Jay Street-MetroTech. Customers may use the 4 train at nearby stations.


From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday, June 18, Brooklyn-bound Q trains skip Avenue M due to completion work on southbound stairs and annex area. Free shuttle buses operate between Avenue M and Kings Highway.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19, Brooklyn-bound R trains operate over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to installation of tactile and platform tiles at Cortlandt Street.

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Transit Labor

Gelinas: No Senate leadership on runaway wages

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 17, 2011

Earlier this week, when the Republican-controlled State Senate voted to repeal the payroll tax, I accused them of playing politics poorly with the MTA. I’ve already explained why Sen. Lee Zeldin’s fiscal claims are pure fantasy, and I’m not the only one eying this measure with skepticism.

In The Post today, Nicole Gelinas takes the Senate to task for missing what she feels are the right issues. First, Zeldin’s charges that the MTA could save $1.4 billion seem to resemble nothing approaching reality, and second, she wants to see state leaders getting tougher on wages and employee benefits. I’ll excerpt extensively for the purposes of discussion:

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans fulfilled a longtime promise, voting to slash the tax roughly in half: Their plan would exempt small businesses and schools come January, then end the tax in the suburbs over two years, while reducing it by a third within the city. But the bill has no chance in the Assembly; all the GOP has done is remind us that the shift of party control of the Senate only changes the sound of the grandstanding. The Republicans are no more likely to stick up for taxpayers and riders against public-sector unions than were the Democrats.

Sure, Sen. Lee Zeldin, the freshman Long Islander who has pushed hardest for the bill, sounds good. He says correctly that the MTA can be more efficient, sell off real estate and explore some privatization. But the MTA is already doing the first two: Headcount is down 4,066 people since 2008. Even if it cuts 4,000 more, it would still face a $660 million annual deficit by 2014.

Plus, Zeldin and colleagues are tiptoeing around the elephant in the room: Albany has no idea where to get the $9.9 billion needed for the next three years’ worth of investments in rail cars and buses, plus construction projects like bringing the Long Island Rail Road into Grand Central. Zeldin notes gamely that MTA Chairman Jay Walder can save bucks on capital. But even if Walder saved 20 percent, Albany would need to come up with nearly $8 billion. That’s an extra $520 million a year in debt costs.

The senators claim some of their tax repeal is pain-free. But this is fantasy: They’d give the MTA $100 million in revenues from New York’s carbon cap-and-trade plan — money that may well not materialize. And they’d restore state aid to the city, with the provision that Gotham devote $150 million to transit. That’s moving money around.

If the GOP were serious, it would address union-labor costs. In three years, MTA pension and health costs will rise 30 percent. It’s not just a city issue; suburban railroad workers enjoy benefits not available in the private sector. But in Wednesday’s debate, senators talked everything from MTA “mob infiltration” to “criminal accounting” to whether tax-paying is “patriotic.” Nobody said that the MTA’s workers should pay more for health care, saving $150 million, or that pensions for new workers should be less generous.

On a three-year wage freeze, Zeldin was less than firm, telling me that “I would support just about anything that the MTA and the unions agree to, provided it’s fiscally responsible.” He said that pressure should come from the popular governor, since “to do something that impacts large unions, it can’t be just one senator leading by the chin.”

GOP lawmakers, as usual, are gung-ho on the tax issue. But on the union medicine needed, they profess that it’s the MTA that has to come up with ideas. The MTA, in turn, knows not to ask for anything anti-union that Albany doesn’t support.

Democrats, who were too busy discussing Fernando Ferrar’s mustache, have been no better, she says, but that’s seemingly beside the point. No one in Albany is willing to push either the MTA or its unions to make some badly needed concessions.

Now, I’m not a stridently anti-union guy usually, and I’m certainly not as against organized labor as Gelinas and the Manhattan Institute are. Yet, it’s clear that the MTA has a labor problem. It cannot keep doling out wage raises and full pensions while the rest of its financial picture declines. It cannot become a welfare institution that cannot provide adequate transportation service because too much of its budget is tied up in employee compensation. Fiscal responsibility will start with better payroll measures.

Ultimately, the MTA should be looking at ways to streamline operations through OPTO, through overtime control and through better collaboration across departments. It’s slowly getting there, but it’s going to need political support to do so. Will the Governor step up? Will the Senate? Will anyone?

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Buses

On SBS successes and meddling community boards

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 17, 2011

Now that the MTA and DOT have been offering Select Bus Service for nearly nine months, the agencies have a better picture of how it’s shaping up, and the early returns have been quite positive. This week, DOT presented its findings on SBS to Community Board 3, and DNA Info was there. According to DOT, trips have increased along the M15 by 30 percent since Select Bus Service debuted, and travel times by 15-18 percent.

Meanwhile, enforcement remains a key concern for the city. Enforcement officials had issued nearly 4700 fare-evasion summonses to riders through April, and lane enforcement cameras had resulted in 5800 ticketed drivers who were parked in the bus-only lanes. People too are safer as injury-causing crashes have dropped by 14 percent on both avenues between 34th and Houston Sts.

Yet, CB3 didn’t seem satisfied, and here we see the dangers of community boards in the transportation planning process. Community Board members say that gaps between local and express stops and the frequency of Select Bus Service stops “make it difficult for riders to choose between the two buses.” Their solution? More Select Bus Service stops. CB3 wants to see “regular and SBS bus stops be placed closer together or combined at locations to provide riders with more options,” and one rider asked for a stop at Allen and Delancey Sts.

If Community Boards had their ways, Select Bus Service stops would be just as frequent as local service, and that’s the problem. SBS works because the stops are far apart, and that sometimes means skipping busy locations. Already, there’s a stop at Houston and Allen and Grand and Allen. That’s only a distance of 0.4 miles. Adding yet another stop in there — two blocks away from Grand St. — is entirely unnecessary.

I’m happy to see Community Board consulted in the planning process. Neighbors should have a say on changes that will impact their lives. But at a certain point, the experts have to be allowed to run the service. Local and express stations aren’t closer together so that SBS buses aren’t stuck behind local routes. Station distances on the SBS route are far apart to allow buses to build up speed. That’s what makes the system work, and it shouldn’t be changed.

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MTA TechnologySubway Maps

Improving the way we find the way

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 17, 2011

The MTA's latest wayfinding sign on the downtown platform at Union Square. Click to enlarge. (Photo courtesy of David Sims)

Everything old is new again. As the MTA looks to improve the way straphangers get around — an important aspect of the service the authority must provide to its customers — it has turned to something familiar to those who know their subway history.

At certain stops along the East Side IRT, Transit testing new strip maps that show riders where the subway go. The new signs, similar to the one atop this post sent to me by David Sims, a SAS reader and reporter for The Chief-Ledger, are evocative of the strip maps that used to adorn the subway map back in the 1980s. By showing riders where the train that will arrive on that track will next go, the authority helps those without an encyclopedic knowledge of the subway system find their ways around.

I asked the MTA about the new signs yesterday, and an agency spokesman had this to say:

The subway system has been around for more than 100 years, and we are constantly looking for ways to improve the way it works for our customers. Similar to our mid-2010 redesigned service change posters, we’re taking a fresh new approach to increase the availability of easy-to-read maps throughout the system. While every station already has a subway map, customers don’t always have time to locate the map or sort through all of the information it provides. We’re trying out a few ways of doing this as a pilot and we’ll decide how to move forward based on customer feedback.

The strip maps are the first part of the pilot program, and it’s hard to dispute their usefulness or visual appeal. They may be limited in that they represent peak-hour subway service only, but that’s when most people are riding. I’ll be curious to see what the next step of this pilot program resembles.

Meanwhile, as part of a more long-term effort to deliver customer service upgrades, Transit is toying with the idea of retrofitting older rolling stock with digital signs. Michael Grynbaum has the deets:

New York City Transit is looking for a way to bring some of its older subway cars into the digital age. The upgrade, if put into effect, would bring automated station announcements and digital route displays to more than 1,700 aging subway cars, including the entirety of the B, D, and Nos. 1, 3 and 7 lines.

Those amenities come standard on the system’s blue-hued modern trains. Currently, the most high-tech signage on a B train is a plastic roll sign operated via hand-crank. To subway officials, intent on improving the passenger experience, the change would bring clearer, real-time travel information to riders tired of screechy intercoms and static maps. But the end of live announcements could signal another step in the creeping dehumanization of a subway system already shedding station agents and, on some cars, train operators…

Neither a timeline nor an estimated cost for the upgrade was available on Thursday, mostly because the transit agency still needs to determine if the idea is feasible.

I don’t put much weight into the nostalgia of live announcements. While Grynbaum spoke to Harry Nugent about the more colorful conductors, I side with Andrew Albert. “I haven’t heard the robot make a mistake,” the chairman of the New York City Transit Riders Council said. “I have heard the human make a mistake.” (Of course, the robotic announcements can be loud and annoying, but we covered that complaint recently.)

If the MTA can find a cost-efficient way to upgrade rolling stock that won’t be due for replacement for the next 15 years, they should. After all, it’s all about improving the customer experience. I would have to believe, though, that it might be easier to upgrade the static route signs on the R142s and R143s to the dynamic FIND displays. Too many times do I board a 2 train with the map for a 5 train and a note saying that the route-finder isn’t in service.

Essentially, these upgrades are minor ones that can make a big difference in the way New Yorkers and visitors commute. It can take a lot of the guesswork out of finding the way around, and that focus on the customer has been sorely missing for the MTA for quite a while now.

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AsidesMTA Absurdity

MTA ‘moving to fire’ bus driver after 15 suspensions

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 16, 2011

There’s no job security quite like working for the MTA. Take, for instance, this tale from today’s Daily News. Edward Meehan, an express bus driver on Staten Island who lives in New Jersey, just earned himself his 15th suspension for violating MTA rules. This time, the authority placed on leave without pay when he used his express bus as, in the words of Pete Donohue and Kerry Wills, “as a private lounge to meet a lady friend while on duty.” His previous suspensions were for speeding, running red lights and various other traffic infractions.

Meehan claims nothing illicit happened in the bus. He says he’s happily married and was just meeting his friend to talk. But he isn’t denying that he said his X22 was delayed an hour because of traffic. He also filed for overtime pay for the time he spent sitting in his bus with his lady friend. “He claims they were just talking,” one source said. “He said he was going through a hard time and she’s a friend.” According to a report by Barry Kluger, the MTA Inspector General, Meehan met with this woman in his bus at least three times in April.

The MTA will now try to fire Meehan, but they have gone down this road before. In 2008, after the MTA moved to fire him for “gross negligence” following numerous speeding incidents, an arbitrator reduced the penalty to 25 days without pay. That’s a slap on the wrists, and it certainly makes me think that there’s no job security quite like having a gig with the authority.

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7 Line Extension

Photo of the Day: The 7 Line moves onward

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 16, 2011

Photo by Patrick Cashin/MTA

It’s a pretty good gig being the MTA’s official photographer. After taking us into Fulton St. yesterday, today, Patrick Cashin toted his camera down into the 7 line extension to snap some shots of the city’s newest subway expansion project. The one-stop extension to 34th St. and 11th Ave. is set to open in around 30 months, and work is progressing quickly.

The shots from inside the project are stunning. Above, workers are laying the foundation for what will eventually be the track bed. Cashin also provides some great shots of the station cavern (1, 2). I can’t quite figure out what this one is, but that’s quite a curve. I’ve embedded the rest of the photos as a slide show after the jump.

For the MTA, the 7 line extension will be the first new segment of subway to open since 2000 when the 63rd St. tunnel finally connected through to the rest of the Queens Boulevard line, but it is not without its own controversy. The city, which is footing the bill for this extension, opted to torpedo a badly-needed station at 41st St. and 10th Ave. when costs grew too high, and the MTA didn’t have the money for it either. The feds then failed to fund a study that would have assessed the feasibility of building out a station after the extension is complete, and no provisioning for future work there has been built into the project. Only in New York can a subway extension completely fail in such spectacular fashion. At least the Far West Side will finally have transit access though.

After the jump, a full set of photos from Patrick Cashin.

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MTA Politics

The Senate plays politics with the MTA

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on June 16, 2011

Dean Skelos and the Republican Senate majority up in Albany know they have it good right now. As the Assembly is still controlled by Sheldon Silver and a Democrat sits in the Governor’s Mansion, the Republicans can pass a series of measures designed to fulfill promises made to constituents and interest groups without actually delivering on the policies. Lopsided bills will pass one house and not the other as State Senators can go back to their constituents to point out faux-accomplishments.

Of course, if either party or both parties in Albany are going to play politics with anything, it will be with the MTA, and the Republicans in the Senate did not disappoint. We first start with S04637. This is a fun bit of legislation in that it mandates that the MTA contract and pay out of pocket for a forensic audit with results delivered by January 1, 2013. If anything, it shows that the State Senators are learning.

Now, for much of the past few years, we’ve heard repeated calls for a forensic audit, and the term is a vague one. While Thomas DiNapoli as State Comptroller has the authority to straight-up audit the MTA, a forensic audit is one usually conducted at the target’s expense designed to root out not just wasteful practices but criminal expenditures. For example, a forensic audit would search for examples of embezzlement, fraudulently procured contracts and other types of criminal waste.

Within the past few months, a group of Independent Democrats have put out a call for a forensic audit. Citing the ever-popular “two sets of books” charge and begrudgingly admitting that the MTA’s budgeting process is far more transparent than it was eight years ago, the IDC claimed that the MTA should spend the $10 million because it might find evidence of improper spending practices that could lead to criminal charges, and it might find savings to cover the expenditures. It (perhaps rightly) doesn’t seem to trust the MTA, but as the politicians are the ones arguing for a forensic audit, shouldn’t they fund it too?

The point is largely a moot one; the Assembly isn’t likely to approve the forensic audit bill. In fact, the last time it did so, it expressly included language that required the state to pay for the audit, and the funds never materialized. Here, at least, the GOP in the Senate can say they tried as Jay Walder has continued to push for internal financial reform and a streamlined process of expenditures.

The forensic audit though is hardly the worst of the bills. The one that came out of the Senate concerning the payroll tax is. I briefly touched upon this bill yesterday, but it bears another look. Essentially, Lee Zeldin’s plan to repeal the payroll tax for the suburban counties while shifting the tax burden onto the city without identifying other equitable sources of revenue for the MTA cleared the Senate.

And, boy, was Zeldin pleased with himself. “I am very pleased to announce to my constituents, residents of Long Island and the rest of the 12-county MTA region that the state Senate has passed legislation to repeal the job-killing MTA Payroll Tax,” he said. “There is absolutely no doubt that the MTA, without increasing fares or cutting services, can balance its books after this legislation is implemented. One must question the motives and veracity of any individual or group that attempts to dispute this fact going forward.”

Except there is doubt. It’s impossible for the MTA to find $1.5 billion in annual savings without significantly curtailing services or jacking up the fares. In a classic political twist, he blames those who would dare defend transit subsidies or the MTA’s budget. Now, I don’t care much for the payroll tax, but I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the MTA’s budget documents. This is not an agency that can cut an additional $1.5 billion out of its $12 billion budget. Between debt payments, fixed operating costs and employee costs, the savings just aren’t there, no matter how stridently Zeldin claims them to be.

Another State Senator issued an equally laughable claim. “It’s time for the MTA to stop balancing its budget on the backs of hard-working New Yorkers,” Senator Greg Ball said. Does he think by raising the fares the MTA won’t also be balancing the budget on actual hard-working New Yorkers who can’t afford automobiles and soon won’t be able to afford monthly rail passes? Does Ball think only non-hard-working New Yorkers would suffer from service cuts or fare hikes? Do politicians in Albany doubt our ability to think critically?

To make matters worse, the Republicans tied in the payroll tax repeal with a measure for which advocates have been pushing: a transit lockbox. In the same bill as the repeal, the lockbox, which I discussed in May, cleared the Senate. So with one hand, the State Senate is supporting transit while with the other hand and in the same piece of legislation, they are robbing transit.

Ultimately, this piece of legislation doesn’t matter much in the short term. Sheldon Silver has said that the payroll mobility tax isn’t going anywhere. He at least recognizes that to remove the tax revenue would require a different source of funds, albeit congestion pricing, bridge tolls or much higher fares, and that’s not a conversation he’s ready or willing to have right now. But the moves tonight provide a glimpse into the thinking of those in charge, and it’s clear that no one is willing to lead on transit with good, sound, practical policy ideas. It’s only about scoring points with constituents while the millions of people who need the buses and subways and commuter rail lines are looked down upon and ignored.

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