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Second Ave. Sagas

News and Views on New York City Transportation

MTA PoliticsService Cuts

To avoid service cuts, Council members urge reallocation

by Benjamin Kabak December 15, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 15, 2009

In an effort to help the MTA stave off crippling service cuts while earning some political brownie points, two New York City Council members urged the MTA to reject the service cuts proposals. Council Member James Vacca (D-Bronx) and Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn joined some transit advocates in speaking out against the cuts. The two proposed an alternate solution to the MTA’s funding gap, but it is nothing more than a temporary fix.

According to the press release issued by the council members, the MTA would use $90 million in “unspent federal stimulus aid” that is supposed to go to capital projects to cover the budget gap while another $50 million would be moved from the capital budget to the operating ledger. Although the MTA may still have to cut salaries, the Student MetroCard program and some Access-A-Ride services, this $140 million accounting trick would avert the death of the W and Z trains as well as the cuts to citywide bus service and midday subway frequency.

Quinn’s press release has some information backwards: It says the MTA Board is voting a week before they issue the cuts when in fact it’s voting less than a week after releasing them. The council members though defending their suggestion as a one-time solution.

“If bus and subway services are cut the way the MTA is proposing, we will be creating mass transit deserts throughout New York City, stranding hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers,” Vacca said. “Once again, we’ll have citizens paying more and getting less. The city, state, and MTA have got to come together and reexamine the agency’s budget so that these cuts never become a reality.”

The Speaker herself bemoaned the lack of public hearings on the cuts. “We normally would not favor using capital funding towards operating expenses,” she said. “However under these circumstances, this is the only appropriate action to take. The MTA’s decision not to hold a single public hearing for straphangers to weigh in on proposed service cuts or the elimination of student metro cards is a slap in the face to millions of hardworking families. Before these drastic changes are made, the MTA must pledge to give the public a chance to voice their concerns before enacting these extreme changes.”

Quinn and Vacca should understand the MTA is legally obligated to pass a balanced budget before the end of the year. Without permission from Albany, there is simply no time to hold public hearings and, based on the hearings earlier this year, no real point to them. People aren’t going to like the hikes whether or not the MTA holds some hearings.

In the end, though, it’s not about hearings; it’s about an unsatisfactory solution. For now, moving money from one budget to the other would avoid the service cuts, but it is nothing more than a short-term fix. The MTA has suffered through decades of short-term fixes, and the last thing the agency could do is move money from its capital budget to its operating expenses. The capital budgets ensure that this system doesn’t fall apart and, in fact, continues to grow. The Council should come up with more permanent ways to fund the MTA. The city is depending upon it.

December 15, 2009 14 comments
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MetroCardService CutsStraphangers Campaign

The mathematics of cutting free student fares

by Benjamin Kabak December 15, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 15, 2009

When an eleventh-hour Albany bailout package earlier this year ensured that the MTA would not need to institute its original Doomsday budget proposal, I ran something of a postmortem on the transit advocates’ roles in the debate. In a rather scathing piece that generated strong feelings on both sides of the divide, I questioned the Straphangers’ approach toward their advocacy campaign and wondered if they were truly taking advantage of their position as the city’s leading — and sometimes only — transit advocacy group.

Since then, the Campaign has seemingly taken a more vocal role in trying to educate the public. Gene Russianoff has been quick to point out that the payroll tax short fall is entirely Albany’s fault, and he has, for better or worse, proposed alternate ways the MTA could close its budget gap without cutting too many services.

But an e-mail I received yesterday made me raise an eyebrow or two. First, it starts out saying, “For the MTA, reviving these cuts would shred its credibility.” Of course, it’s not for another three paragraphs that the Straphangers accuse Albany of not doing its job. Perhaps the MTA does lose its credibility, but who should lose more credibility — the agency tasked with balancing its budget or the state legislature whose empty promises have left the authority nearly broke? I still believe the better strategy for a transit advocacy group is to educate and not to finger-point at the agency that has few options available to it.

It gets better though when the Straphangers bring math into the equation:

Riders have every right to be mad as hell ­– and parents furious. Ending full-fare and half-fare discounts for 550,000 students in New York would be a huge financial burden on families. For example, it would cost a parent at least $1,069 annually to pay to get their full-fare child to school (280 school days x $1.91 x 2. A $1.91 represents 15% off $2.25, the current base fare.) $1069 equal to the costs of a 30-day pass for an entire year!

Now, first, the Campaign’s math is simply wrong. I use a 30-day card every month, and the totally yearly cost to me is $1068. I might be picking a bone over one dollar, but it’s just sloppy multiplication. That’s not the real problem though; the real problem is one of simple common sense. If, as the Straphangers contend, it will actually cost less to buy 30-day passes for a year than it will to pay the full fare everyday for 280 school days, wouldn’t parents just, you know, buy 30-day passes for their school-bound children? So much would it actually cost to send two children to school for 280 days? Let’s find out.

One 2010-2011 school year calendar I’ve seen has school beginning on Monday, Sept. 13 after the Jewish holidays. Students are then in school through Dec. 17, return on Jan. 3, have a week off in both February and April and see the year wrap up around June 17. The fall semester, then, would cover three unlimited ride MetroCards plus five days of paying the full fare. The spring semester would require five unlimited ride MetroCards and another two-week MetroCard plus five days of the full fare. How’s the math look?

(8*$89)+$51.50+(10*$1.91*2)=$801.70

But there’s a further problem: There aren’t 280 school days in the calendar year. There are approximately 180 school days in New York City. The math for a full-fare ride for the actual school year looks like this:

180*$1.91*2=$687.60

No matter how you slice or dice, for many families, that figure will still look expensive. Some who use transit on the weekends will opt for the $800 approach; others may stick with the $687 figure. No matter the cost, it will be a burden to spend those additional hundreds of dollars on student transportation costs, and after enjoying free rides for years, parents will experience an element of sticker shock here.

But my main point is that the Straphangers should be presenting an honest expense figure here. It will cost between $687 and $800 to send one student to school for the entire school year, excluding summers. The public deserves to know that, and the Straphangers, a ridership advocacy group, should not be releasing widely inflated figure as they did yesterday.

December 15, 2009 12 comments
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MTA PoliticsService Cuts

The politics of threatening service cuts

by Benjamin Kabak December 15, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 15, 2009

As news got around of the MTA’s new plan to cut services yesterday, New Yorkers acted with predictable outrage. Many were sympathetic to the plight of the MTA while others wondered how the authority could target two vulnerable groups — students and the disabled — with the bulk of their cuts.

The truth is that yesterday’s announcement was the first in an intricate six-month political game the MTA will now play with the city and state. On Monday, the MTA Board’s Finance Committee approved these service cuts with an eye toward closing a $383-million budget gap. Tomorrow, the full MTA Board, under a legal mandate to pass a balanced budget before the end of the 2009 calendar year, will listen to MTA CFO Gary Dellaverson’s proposal and will debate it. The mayor’s appointees to the MTA Board probably won’t approve it, but in the end, the Board will pass this plan.

From there, everything slows down. The bulk of the cuts — those involving subway and bus service — will not be implemented until mid year. Right now, June 2010 is the target date for the elimination of the W and Z as well as the cut backs to buses. After that, the student Metrocard program will be reduced from a free ride to a half-price scheme in September with a full elimination of the subsidies the following year.

Those representing the MTA are well aware that these cuts are far from certain. “If this budget were to get passed, it’s nothing but a plan,” Jeffrey A. Kay, one of Bloomberg’s MTA Board appointees, said to The Times. “There are many, many other steps and changes that will be made before things get implemented.”

Despite Kay’s seemingly optimistic approach, Jay Walder, MTA CEO and Chairman, was more pessimistic. Outside of a politically unpalatable fare hike, the cuts are all the MTA can do to fulfill its legal budgetary obligations. “I don’t want to leave you with the sense that this isn’t very real,” he said. “There are few other ways to look at balancing a budget hole of the magnitude that it is right now.”

Still, there is an element of politics here, and Michael Grynbaum of The Times explored that today:

There appeared to be a bit of political brinkmanship at play. Leaders at the transportation authority were quick to point out that the [Student MetroCard] program used to be fully financed by the city and state, which have reduced or limited their contributions in recent years. An authority spokesman, Jeremy Soffin, said that it was uncommon for transit systems to shoulder the costs of student travel.

Charles Brecher, research director at the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal monitor, said that while cutting student discounts underscored the pressures facing the authority, it could also be used as an effective negotiating tool.

“It helps create the notion that other parties share some of the responsibility,” he said. “It’s not just a general holding out of the cup. It says, ‘If you, the city, would increase your share, we wouldn’t have to do this.’”

I disagree with Brecher here in one sense. It isn’t about creating the notion of shared responsibility; rather, it is about educating the public about the city’s and state’s neglect of their responsibilities toward the MTA. It is politics because the politicians are the one who can deliver. The politicians are the one who told the MTA not to institute drastic fare hikes and service cuts last year because Albany would deliver an appropriate bailout package, and the politicians are the ones who refuse to implement an East River Bridge tolling plan or congestion pricing scheme that would equitably fund transit.

In the end, these cuts are simply on the table. It will be six months until they go into effect, and that gives New Yorkers six months to urge their representatives to find solutions for the MTA’s funding problems — problems which Albany created. Six months seems to be a good amount of time, but it’s not. If ever there were a time to pressure New York’s politicians, it is now. The city’s transit network depends on it.

December 15, 2009 10 comments
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Service Cuts

Disabled, students hardest hit in MTA budget

by Benjamin Kabak December 14, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 14, 2009

MetroCardContributions

In an effort to close an unexpected budget gap of nearly $400 million, the MTA this morning unveiled a plan to cut services across the city. While two subway lines and a few bus routes will be eliminated and service on others severely reduced, the city’s students and disabled are the hardest hit in the latest round of cuts.

As the Gary Dellaverson, MTA CFO, explained this morning, this new budget gap developed early last week when payroll tax totals came in at around $200 million below expectations. The state has since revised that number upward to $100 million below expectations, but that $100 million combined with lower expectations for 2010, a late-year cut of $143 million in appropriations to the MTA and a labor arbitration ruling that will add $91 million to the MTA’s bottom line next year has led to a deficit of $383 million. Since the agency has promised to avoid a fare hike until 2011, cuts are on the table.

“To present a balanced budget despite losing hundreds of millions of dollars in State funding over the past two weeks requires measures that are painful to the MTA, our employees and our customers,” Dellaverson said to the MTA’s finance committee. “Given the ongoing downturn in the broader economy and the resultant economic crisis facing the State, we have worked to balance the budget while maintaining our commitment to riders not to increase fares in 2010.”

And the cuts are severe. In addition to reviving the Doomsday service cuts, the MTA will rollback the student discount for MetroCards and will pare down services to the disabled until they meet the bare federal minimums under the Americans with Disabilities Act. At a time when the agency has few choices, it’s certainly taking the ones bound to attract the most political attention. The financial summary and board presentation, available here and here, respectively, as PDFs, tell a tale of reduced service across the board.

The MTA plans to:

  • Discontinue W and Z subway routes; terminate G subway route at Court Street;
  • Increase subway headways on weekends and early mornings; increase off-peak subway load guidelines;
  • Adjust express bus service to reflect demand and eliminate low performing weekend express bus service;
  • Discontinue and restructure local bus service on low-performing routes;
  • Eliminate Rockaway-resident Cross Bay toll rebate program;
  • Reduce car consists and increase load standards; and
  • Reduce service, on Commuter Railroads.

Although everyone will suffer from reduced service, more crowded midday trains and fewer overall options, students and disabled passengers will see a drastic change of transportation quality. As I noted this morning, the MTA seemed ready to axe student MetroCards, and that plan is now official. With Gov. David Paterson starting the day by saying that his hands were tied and the Daily News reporting that state contributions to student transit costs were down to just $6 million, the MTA could no longer afford to fork over nearly $170 million in voluntary subsidies for student travel.

Under the new plan, the MTA will move to a half-price discount for students in September 2010 and phase out the Student MetroCard program entirely in September 2011. By delaying the elimination of these free rides, the MTA is giving Albany ample time to find money for the program. The MTA should not be expected to foot the bill for a program the city and state once promised to fund in full. “The MTA” the financial summary says, “can no longer afford to subsidize this free service and, therefore, is proposing a roll back of the discount for school transportation.”

As for paratransit service reductions, the MTA is vague on the specifics. Michael Grynbaum reports that the authority will provide paratransit service only to the nearest handicap-accessible subway station and that door-to-door service will be eliminated entirely. The agency’s documents call for cost savings of $40 million in 2010 and $80 million in 2011 through “improvements in scheduling efficiency, an increase in the use of vouchers and taxis, better coordination of feeder service with accessible fixed route service, improved eligibility screening, and the elimination of the most expensive carriers.” No matter the end result, the MTA’s services for the disabled will be simply, as I said, the bear minimum required by law.

I’ll have more on these catastrophic cuts over the next few, but I want to leave you for now again with Andrew Albert’s quote. This is a mess of Albany’s doing, and our elected representatives are trying to wash their hands of it. That injustice just cannot stand. As Albert said, “To have this situation in the most transit-dependent city in the country is a complete failure of government.”

December 14, 2009 16 comments
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Asides

Coming Soon: Service cuts, in detail

by Benjamin Kabak December 14, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 14, 2009

Unfortunately, I’m in the middle of a long take-home exam for one of my law school classes and do not right now have the opportunity to go in-depth on the MTA’s planned service cuts. They are very extensive though with students and the disabled getting hit the worst. In a way, it’s a great political ploy by the MTA, but it’s sure to engender more outrage toward an agency with few other choices. I’ll have a detailed post on the cuts up as soon as I’m through with this final.

December 14, 2009 13 comments
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AsidesPublic Transit Policy

Succinctly pointing a finger at Albany

by Benjamin Kabak December 14, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 14, 2009

A brief New York Times article summarizing the various service cuts the MTA will consider over the next few weeks as it struggles to balance its budget and close a gap near $500 million ends with a kicker. After running through the service changes — subway and bus elimination and less frequent midday service, student MetroCard Cuts and a plan to scale back Access-A-Ride service — Michael Grynbaum drops in a devastatingly effective quote from Andrew Albert, an MTA Board member and chairman of the New York City Transit Riders Council: “To have this situation in the most transit-dependent city in the country is a complete failure of government.”

In a sense, that’s what Second Ave. Sagas is all about. Although this site started out on the wheels of the Second Ave. Subway, it has, over the last three years, morphed into an all-encompassing platform for transit advocacy in New York City. I try to explore every facet of MTA operations within the five boroughs (and often outside the city), and one major theme has been the utter lack of financial respect Albany and City Hall give the MTA. Albert is right; this situation is an embarrassing failure of government in a city more reliant on its transit network than any other in the country. For now, though, I’ll just keep fighting the good fight in my corner of the Internet and hope for a better transit future in New York.

December 14, 2009 11 comments
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MetroCardService Cuts

To save money, MTA may axe Student MetroCards

by Benjamin Kabak December 14, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 14, 2009

studentmetrocards Faced with a budget gap of a few hundred million dollars, the MTA may be targeting a politically sensitive giveaway that is bound to get New Yorkers riled up over the looming service cuts. According to a report in the Daily News, the authority is considering eliminating student MetroCards as part of a multi-faceted approach to closing its new-found budget gap.

Amongst the TWU’s arbitration award, the payroll tax short fall and the state appropriations cut, the MTA may face a budget gap as large as $500 million this year, and the Student MetroCards have long been a sore subject for the agency. According to Pete Donohue, the authority doles out approximately 550,000 Student MetroCards each year that allow the city’s pupils to ride the rails for free. Once jointly fully funded by the city and state, both political bodies have cut back their student-based contributions to the MTA, and the agency runs annual deficits on this program.

In fact, two years ago, City Comptroller William Thompson reported on the student MetroCard funding programs. Because the city and state contribute just $90 million to a program that costs $161.5 million to administer, the agency effectively loses $71.5 million per year on Student MetroCards. To make matters worse, this has been the status quo for these student passes since the mid-1990s. Why should an authority tasked with balancing its budget dole out free rides when the city and state have long ago reneged on their pledges to fully fund student transit subsidies?

The Student MetroCard program is based solely on how far away a student lives from his or her school and not on need, and parents are up in arms over the rumored cuts to it. The comments three Daily News reporters dug up are as expected. Parents say they won’t be able to afford to send their children to school via public transit, and kids say some of their classmates simply won’t go to school because they would have way to get there. Education experts too worry about the loss of free transit.

“If you’re going to eliminate neighborhood high schools as the mayor has in most of the city, it’s absolutely critical to have free transportation for kids, especially because children are required by law to go to school,” Clara Hemphill, a New School education expert, said. “Some kids are traveling up to 90 minutes by public transportation. There’s absolutely no way to get there without the subway and bus.”

In a rather absurd column, Michael Daly goes after the MTA for this plan as well. He claims that smart kids may “risk arrest” by jumping turnstiles to get to school and that the city will lose federal education funding because the authority’s cuts to the MetroCard program will cause truancy rates to rise. With this charge, we might be nearing the point where someone has managed to blame the MTA for just about any potential problem in the city.

The reality, though, is far from simple. It’s true that, for an eight-month school year, 30-day unlimited ride MetroCards would cost families $712 per child, but the MTA could opt to go for a reduced rate for students. Even a $1 or 50-cent student ride would enable the MTA to capture additional revenue while eliminating a $70-million loss from the agency’s books.

Furthermore, the agency should not be expected to simply foot the bill when the city and state refuse to pony up for a program they originally promised to fund. The MTA provides student MetroCards at the request of New York’s politicians. It is under no legal obligation to do so, and it is well within its right to threaten to eliminate this program as a way to draw more attention to its fiscal plight and more funds for its severely strained coffers.

Cutting Student MetroCards and those three free rides a day will hurt. Families will be forced to pay more money to send their children to school, and others won’t be able to attend schools far from home. But the MTA has its back against the wall, and it is fighting back with all of its might. End the great student MetroCard swindle and that huge budget gap will look a little bit smaller.

December 14, 2009 55 comments
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TWU

Wage increases to cost MTA $100 million after judge backs TWU in appeal

by Benjamin Kabak December 13, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 13, 2009

A New York State Court judge has backed the Transport Workers Union of American, Local 100 in its fight against the MTA to secure its binding arbitration award. In a ruling issued late Friday, Judge O. Peter Sherwood declined to grant the MTA an injunction against the arbitration award that guaranteed TWU workers 11 percent in wage raises over the next three years.

Noting that the court has “limited authority in this case,” Sherwood upheld the arbitration award on the grounds the arbitrators’ decision was “plausible or had a plausible basis” in reality. As long as the award criteria were “considered in good faith” and not unconscionable, the judge could not vacate the TWU’s victory. In plain English, basically, Sherwood noted that unless the arbitrators did not follow the rule of the law and were not unreasonable in explaining their decision, he would have to uphold the ruling.

As Sherwood noted, the arbitration panel followed the Taylor Law’s six criteria in determining the arbitration award. Since the arbitration decision was not “affected by misconduct, bias or procedural defects,” Sherwood upheld the award. “Although the [MTA] disagrees with the [arbitration panel] Majority’s analysis of MTA finances, it has not shown that the findings of the Majority are not supported by substantial evidence and do not have a plausible basis,” he wrote. (The full decision is embedded after the jump and available here as a PDF.)

In response to this decision, the MTA, which will soon announce a salary reduction for all non-union employees and substantial cuts to transit service across the city, decried the economic impact of this ruling. According to the authority, this court-mandated pay increase will add $100 million to the agency’s bottom line in 2010 and another $200 million in 2011.

“Last night the MTA learned that our appeal of the TWU Local 100 arbitration award was unsuccessful. We are extremely disappointed by this decision, which will force the MTA to pay wage increases that are inconsistent with the economic crisis in New York,” the authority said in a statement issued Saturday. “The ruling will have severe financial impacts on the MTA budget, coming on the heels of a State budget cut and reduction in payroll tax proceeds.”

The agency also fired the first salvo in what promises to be a bitter war of words between them and the TWU workers. In no uncertain terms, the MTA noted that the arbitration award may guarantee more money for union workers but will come at a high public cost. “We are working through the weekend to incorporate this news into the balanced 2010 budget that must be presented on Monday to the Finance Committee of the MTA Board,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, the magnitude of these changes makes it increasingly difficult to limit the impact this budget will have on the MTA, our employees and customers.”

For its part, the TWU offered up a more conciliatory tone. “The MTA has had their day in court and the judge ruled against them,” John Samuelsen, the new head of Local 100, said. “Now it’s time for them to stop wasting more of the taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars on lawyers’ fees and honor our lawfully obtained contract. I cannot think of a better way for the MTA to start this new labor/management relationship off on the right foot then to release our wage increases.”

Interestingly, Judge Sherwood himself questioned the economic wisdom of the arbitration award, but he was bound by law to uphold the decision. “In the current economic environment, the award of wage and benefits increases over three years of approximately 11.5 percent is a rich package but it is not unique. Were the court assigned direct responsibility for applying the criteria set forth in the Taylor Law to the package of economic benefits demanded by the union, the court might weigh them differently than did the Majority in this instance,” he said.

In the end, the MTA will have to find another $100 million it doesn’t have to institute a four-percent wage increase for thousands of TWU members across the city. Although the agency continues to maintain that it will not raise fares in 2010, the sweeping service cuts needed to cover this even greater gap would utterly cripple the system. I don’t see how, with the appropriations cutbacks, the payroll tax short fall and this arbitration ruling, a fare hike can be avoided.

As of now, the authority does not know if it will appeal the state court’s ruling.

Click through for the full opinion from Judge Sherwood or access it here as a PDF.

Continue Reading
December 13, 2009 28 comments
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AsidesMTA Economics

Non-union employees to face 10 percent pay cut

by Benjamin Kabak December 12, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 12, 2009

As the MTA looks to seal an unexpected $343 million gap in its budget, we know that last year’s Doomsday cuts proposal is back on the table. Today, Sewell Chan of The Times reports that the MTA’s non-union employees will take a pay cut as part of the gap-closing measures. The authority’s 6000 non-workers workers will see their salaries slashed by 10 percent across the board. The agency says these pay cuts could last indefinitely and will either take the form of mandatory furloughs or an indefinite payroll lag.

For the MTA, this announcement comes at a time of labor unrest as its unionized workers fight for a four-percent raise. Although these pay cuts are a necessary component of any gap-closing proposal, it certainly helps the MTA’s arbitration appeal if the authority can point to problems covering payroll. TWU officials have already warned against any efforts to cut unionized workers’ salaries.

In the end, Chan also confirms that the service cuts but no fare hikes will remain on the table, and I have to question the wisdom of that decision. With these payroll cuts — and perhaps some management trimming — the MTA will still face a gap of $250 million. A fare hike of around 5 percent across the board will cover that, and for me, at least, that’s a more palatable solution than service cuts. Unfortunately, the MTA promised not to raise fares in 2010, and the state legislature appears more than willing to hold the authority to its word.

December 12, 2009 29 comments
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Service Advisories

Just a few weekend service changes

by Benjamin Kabak December 11, 2009
written by Benjamin Kabak on December 11, 2009

December really is the best month for subway travel. With tourists descending upon New York, the MTA has scaled back subway work so that just a few lines are impacted this weekend. This is what life would be like without a grand plan to maintain a state of good repair. I think I’ll take a modern subway and some weekend changes rather than a crumbling system and regular weekend service.

Anyway, that’s about it from me for today. We spent a lot of time this week talking about the immediate financial future of the MTA, and I’ll probably toss up a post or two this weekend as well. Don’t forget about the Nostalgia Train this weekend. It runs on the V line on Sundays.

For the rest of the weekend changes, you know the drill. Don’t forget to check out our map from Subway Weekender that shows just how the subway changes impact travel. Download this week’s version right here or by clicking on the image below. Remember: These weekend service changes come to me from the MTA and are subject to change without notice. Check signs in your local station and listen for on-board announcements for up-to-the minute changes. The specific alerts follow.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, December 12 to 10 p.m. Sunday, December 13, Manhattan-bound 7 trains skip 111th, 103rd, 90th, and 82nd Streets due to track panel installation.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, December 12, Sunday, December 13 and Monday, December 14, uptown A trains skip Spring, 23rd and 50th Streets due to track maintenance.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, December 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, December 14, uptown A/C trains skip 135th, 155th, and 163rd Streets due to the track chip-out at 163rd Street.


From 11:45 p.m. Friday, December 11 to 5 a.m. Monday, December 14, free shuttle buses replace AS trains between Howard Beach-JFK Airport and Far Rockaway due to South Channel Bridge repairs and track panel installation.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, December 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, December 14, uptown D trains run local from 125th Street to 145th Street due to the track chip-out at 163rd Street. (The D replaces the suspended C at 135th Street.)


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, December 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, December 14, Manhattan-bound E trains run express from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to track cable work.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, December 12, Sunday, December 13 and Monday, December 14, uptown E trains skip Spring and 23rd Streets due to track maintenance.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday, December 12, Manhattan-bound F trains skip 169th Street due to track cleaning.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday, December 13, Jamaica-bound F trains skip 169th Street due to track cleaning.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, December 12 to 5 a.m. Monday, December 14, Jamaica-bound F trains, after leaving 47th-50th Sts., will run on the E from 5th Avenue-53rd Street to Roosevelt Avenue due to signal maintenance, inspections, testing, track work and grouting.


From 12:01 a.m. to 5 a.m., Saturday, December 12, Sunday, December 13 and Monday, December 14, Brooklyn-bound G trains run express from Forest Hills-71st Avenue to Roosevelt Avenue due to track cable work.

December 11, 2009 0 comment
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