For some reason, the cash-strapped MTA wants to spend a few billion dollars on a raillink from Manhattan to Stewart Aiport. I’ve discussed the folly of this plan before, and a recent announcement by AirTran should drive yet another nail into this idea’s coffin. Last week, AirTran, one of the two biggest carriers out of the Hudson Valley airport, announced plans to end service to Stewart Airport. Stewart becomes another in the long line of smaller regional airports that are too far from urban centers seeing a decrease in flight options, and the plans for a raillink to this airport should probably be frozen now as well.
Queens pol urges MTA to sell property, move to his borough
For the past few years, the MTA has relied on various sources of real estate revenue to cover budget gaps. The authority had to turn to real estate taxes to keep pace with their operating budgets, and it has banked on land deals — such as the Hudson Yards sale — for vital economic contributions.
In the long run, this is, not to mince words, a terrible strategy. As we’ve seen this year, real estate taxes are very much at the whim of the economy, and when the housing market collapses, the MTA’s tax-based revenues follow suit. When those funds are supposed to be a key part of an annual budget, a public transportation agency will find itself strapped for cash.
In an ideal world — and one that New York State’s former three-term governor denied for the better part of a decade — the MTA’s operating budget would come from a separate dedicated revenue source. Whether that source be annual government contributions from the state for something — in this case, a transit system — that drives New York’s economy or, as it probably will be in the future, a congestion fee pricing structure, the MTA should not be dependent upon something as volatile as the real estate market.
By now, with the MTA’s repeated cries of poverty and financial problems, one would hope that New York politicians would start to understand that real estate does not a public transportation budget make. Alas, they do not. In a press conference on Sunday, City Council member Eric Gioia — from Queens — urged the MTA to sell its real estate holdings. He, of course, had an ulterior motive.
The Sun’s Benjamin Sarlin reports:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority should sell the roof over its head before raising fares on New Yorkers twice in one year, Council Member Eric Gioia said yesterday.
Mr. Gioia, a likely candidate for public advocate in 2009, is calling on the MTA to sell off the 20-story building it owns at 44th Street and Madison Avenue to raise the money necessary to avert a fare increase.
“There’s no justification for the MTA to be on Madison Avenue,” Mr. Gioia, of Queens, said at a press conference in front of the building yesterday. “This is a glaring example of an asset being underutilized.”
He estimated that the property, which contains more than 230,000 square feet of prime office space, could fetch “at least” $200 million on the open market. Mr. Gioia suggested that after the sale, the MTA should move its offices to Queens.
Now, I could debate this point with Gioia. I could tell him that the $200-million infusion of cash, if the MTA could actually sell their Madison Ave. space in a weak seller’s market, would do wonders for the MTA’s budget gap this year. I could say that this transaction would do absolutely nothing to shore up the MTA’s finances for next year or further into the future, and I could argue that the rent the MTA would have to pay on whatever property they move to would probably exceed the money they draw in for the sale sooner rather than later.
But instead, I think I’ll just laugh at Gioia for giving it the old college try. This statement was nothing but an attempt to look good in the eyes of his Queens constituents. The MTA should sell their office space — and move to Queens? There must be a better way to fund the MTA than that, Eric. How about some real proposals instead?
Emergency track work delaying L trains today
East Side/West Side changes mark weekend advisories
Earlier this week, we took a brief look at the Ravitch Commission. The 12 members tasked with saving the MTA are all highly-regarded transit and finance experts who will do their best to find the money to keep our trains running.
Today, Streetsblog lets us in a not-so-secret secret: A fair number of the commission members are suppporters of congestion pricing. Four of the 12 members, not counting Ravitch, would seem to support a congestion charge proposal, and my money’s on Ravitch’s commission producing a report calling for a fee. It will be much harder to ignore this plan than it was for the state legislature to shoot down Mayor Bloomberg’s fee.
Meanwhile, service advisories:
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 16, uptown 1 trains skip 79th, 86th, 103rd, 110th, 116th, and 125th Streets due to station rehab at 96th Street and track chip-out at 110h Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 16, uptown 2 trains replace the 5 from Nevins Street to 149th Street-Grand Concourse. Uptown 5 trains replace the 2 from Chambers Street to 149th Street-Grand Concourse. These changes are due to the Clark Street tunnel lighting project.
Brooklyn-bound trains skip Bergen St., Grand Army Plaza and Eastern Parkway from 11 p.m. on Friday, June 13 to 7 a.m. on Sunday, June 14, from 11 p.m. on Saturday, June 14 to 8 a.m. on Sunday, June 15 and from 11 p.m. on Sunday, June 15 to 5 a.m. on Monday, June 16.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 16, there are no 3 trains between New Lots Avenue and 14th Street. In Manhattan, take the uptown 5 or downtown 2. In Brooklyn, take the 4 making all local stops. These changes are due to the Clark Street tunnel lighting project.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 16, uptown 5 trains skip 79th and 86th Streets due to station rehab at 96th Street-Broadway.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, June 14 to 10 p.m. Sunday, June 15, Bronx-bound 6 trains run express from Hunts Point Avenue to Parkchester due to track panel work between Hunts Point Avenue and Parkchester. The last stop for some 6 trains is 125th Street.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 16, there is no C train service. A trains run local between 168th Street and Euclid Avenue. Manhattan-bound A trains run on the F from Jay to West 4th Streets. For Chambers, Canal, and Spring Streets, take the E instead. From High Street and Broadway-Nassau, take a Brooklyn-bound A to Jay Street and transfer to a Manhattan-bound A. These changes are due to Chambers Street Signal Modernization.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, June 14 to 10 p.m. Sunday, June 15, Coney Island-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street (Brooklyn) to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to track panel work between 9th Avenue and Bay 50th Street.
From 8:30 p.m. Friday, June 13 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 16, there are no G trains between Forest Hills-71st Avenue and Court Square due to track chip-out between 36th Street and Roosevelt Avenue. Take the E or R instead.
From 4 a.m. Saturday, June 14 to 10 p.m. Sunday, June 15, free shuttle buses replace J trains between Crescent Street and the Jamaica-Van Wyck E station. (There are no J trains between Crescent Street and Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer.) This is due to track panel installation between Cypress Hills and Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer.
From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, June 14 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 16, Brooklyn-bound NR train are rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge from Canal Street to DeKalb Avenue due to track roadbed work between Prince and Whitehall Streets.
MTA on the hook for $1.2 billion in claims over 12 years
Ever looking out for the public’s bottom line, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has issued another report on the state of the MTA’s finances. This one reveals that the transportation authority has doled out over $1.2 billion for personal claims and property damage over the last 12 years.
The Times’ William Neuman broke the story on City Room on Thursday:
The report said that over all, the two commuter railroads and New York City Transit received a total of 86,875 claims of all types from 1996 to 2007. Since 1996, 85 cases have been settled for $1 million or more, at a total cost of $233 million, or a fifth of all claims paid.
Over the period covered by the study, claims have generally amounted to less than $100 million a year. Last year they reached $144 million because of the settlement of some unusually large claims. The authority’s annual operating budget is more than $10 billion.
The report — available here as a PDF — isn’t so much as critical of the MTA as it is just laying out the facts. Where the report is most critical is in the infamous LIRR armrest issue. The arm rest settlements have exceeded $285,000. That’s a lot of torn pants.
Most of the other claims and the big-ticket items in particular were focused around safety issues. People filed claims for falling into that LIRR platform gap, for getting struck by trains and for worker-related issues. For their part, the MTA in response focused on improving safety standards underground. Said Jeremy Soffin:
Protecting the safety and security of our employees and customers is the MTA’s top priority. The MTA has made great strides in improving safety over the past ten years, and we continue to pursue new initiatives. Since 1996, the employee injury rate has been reduced by 60% and in 2007 the MTA achieved its lowest employee injury rate ever. Customer injuries have also decreased. Since 1996 the number of customer injuries per million customers has decreased by 28% even while the MTA ridership is at record numbers. As a result, the MTA’s ultimate incurred cost for employee and customer accidents is less than what would have been expected, a savings of approximately $335 million from 1997-2007. In addition, two of the causes identified by the Comptroller of higher recent claims — gap incidents and torn clothing due to armrests on the commuter railroads — have both been addressed.
In the end, it’s hard to be overly critical of the MTA for this expenditure. Considering that billions of people ride the subways each year, the injury rate and the amount paid out per year are relatively slow. It would be better to see the MTA’s paying out zero dollars a year, but in our litigious society, that’s just a pipe dream.
House approves Amtrak bill, but Bush may veto it
The House of Representatives yesterday approved a $14.4-billion rail investment bill. The bill will reauthorize Amtrak’s funding, provide some money to long-awaited Moynihan Station project and provide money to construct a high-speed bullet train from New York City to D.C. While the White House may veto this bill, it has the votes in the House and Senate to pass anyway. While I applaud the focus on rail, this strikes me as a “too little, too late” measure. We could use a lot more investments like this one in our national rail.
MTA bigwigs begin fare hike push
At the end of last week on a Friday during the summer, a few anonymous MTA officials dropped a story on Pete Donohue. The MTA, they said, is not-so-quietly considering a fare hike for 2009 to meet operating budget deficits that will exceed tens of millions of dollars.
On Wednesday, with MTA CEO and Executive Director Lee Sander testifying in front of the New York State Assembly’s Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, agency officials dropped any pretense of anonymity and flat-out toward the gathered assembly members that a 2009 fare hike will be necessary if the agency doesn’t see more money flowing its way.
Times reporters William Neuman and Jeremy Peters tell the sad but expected tale:
The executive director, Elliot G. Sander, said that the transportation authority faced an operating deficit of as much as $500 million to $700 million next year and that it would “have no option” but to raise fares in 2009 if it did not receive considerable outside financial assistance.
“Our hope is for additional support from Albany and other partners,” Mr. Sander said, speaking in Albany at a hearing of the State Assembly’s Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions. “If we do not have funding from our outside partners, then the only recourse the M.T.A. has is to raise fares, engage in service cutbacks and cutting staff.”
The authority previously proposed raising fares in 2010, as part of what it said would be a series of regular, moderate increases every two years. But an increase next year would disrupt that initiative before it even started.
Now, MTA haters will be quick to unleash familiar refrains: The MTA has no budget accountability; the MTA has no idea how to balance its books. And while I’m not usually one to leap to the MTA’s rescue, it’s clear from Sander’s testimony that this was a largely unexpected fiscal problem (and one that could have been averted through congestion pricing).
As I’ve noted before, the MTA’s expected revenue from the real estate tax is nearly $100 million below expected levels, and as Sander said today, their fuel expenditures are already 17 percent over budget. Oil prices are heading in only one direction these days, and it isn’t down.
So the MTA has a valid excuse. Now though the ball is firmly in the Assembly’s court. During the congestion pricing debate, numerous elected representatives — and, most vocally, Richard Brodsky — told the MTA that, to get more money from the state, all Lee Sander had to do was ask. As Jay Gallagher at The Journal-News’ Politics on the Hudson blog reported yesterday, that’s exactly what Sander did. “I am asking the Legislature and the governor for more financial support,’’ he said to Brodsky’s committee.
So what say you, Mr. Brodsky? The MTA has laid out its case, and the city’s vital transportation authority has found itself up the proverbial creek with nary a paddle in sight. Will Brodsky keep his word or will he just renege on yet another transit-related promise in the area?
Fare hike 2009, here we come.
The Bronx is down, and the Battery’s up
Where: The last car of a Canarsie-bound L train
When: Yesterday evening, shortly after 6:30 p.m. at Lorimer St.
Pardon the blur. It’s tough to grab a photo and sneak out of the subway doors as they’re closing. It seems that some enterprising prankster or some oblivious MTA worker had some issues with the subway map. Or perhaps the world has literally been turned upside down.
Patterson fills out Ravitch commission with transit, finance experts
Richard Ravitich’s clock is now ticking. By December 5, Ravitch and his newly-appointed 12-member Committee on MTA Finances will have a ten-year plan on the desks of Gov. David Patterson and the New York State legislature, and the fate of the MTA will be tied to that report.
Patterson on Tuesday unveiled the rest of Ravitch’s committee, and the governor filled it with transportation experts and officials and finance and electricity executives. The committee will now begin its unenviable task of finding tens of billions of dollars for the MTA to meet both its capital budget and its operations budget.
City Room breaks down the well-qualified committee:
- Laura L. Anglin, the state budget director since January.
- Kevin M. Burke, chairman and chief executive of Consolidated Edison.
- Robert B. Catell, chairman of National Grid U.S., a unit of the Keyspan Corporation.
- Douglas Durst, the prominent real estate developer who runs the Durst Organization.
- Peter C. Goldmark, who directs the climate and air program at the Environmental Defense Fund. He was formerly state budget director, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and chairman and chief executive of The International Herald Tribune, part of The New York Times Company.
- Denis M. Hughes, president of the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O. since 1999.
- Mysore L. Nagaraja, a transportation project consultant who was formerly president of the M.T.A. Capital Construction Company and senior vice president and chief engineer at New York City Transit.
- Mark Page, the city’s budget director since 2002.
- Kim Paparello Vaccari, head of the transportation group at Banc of America Securities.
- Steven M. Polan, a partner at the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and a former general counsel to the M.T.A.
- The Rev. Joseph McShane, the president of Fordham University since 2003.
- Elliot G. Sander, executive director and chief executive officer of the M.T.A. since 2007.
I’m a bit intrigued by the appointment of Mysore Nagaraja to the committee considering the circumstances surrounding his departure, but he does have the most intimate knowledge of the MTA capital plan right now. Veronique Hakim is simply the interim head of MTA Capital Construction right now and is not really experienced enough in that role to join this group.
Meanwhile, public officials said all the right things in unveiling this commission. “New York’s leaders have too often underestimated the critical importance of mass transit to the economic wellbeing of the region and the quality of life of our citizens,” Paterson said. “The congestion pricing debate highlighted the need for sustainable funding for the MTA. This Commission will help ensure that the MTA has the resources it needs to expand and maintain a mass transit system that can increase regional prosperity while also curbing sprawl, reducing traffic congestion and improving the environment.”
While the commission is bound to recommend some form of congestion pricing providing a dedicated revenue stream for the MTA and public transit, the commission may bring about some much-need organizational change at the MTA. Ravitch and his commission will investigate “initiatives to maximize MTA efficiencies,” and I have to believe that the commission may look into some of the fiscal problems inherent in the MTA’s operations.
As I’ve said before, Ravitch is facing a tough task, but we need him to fulfill the promise he brings to the job. He’s going to have to ask tough questions of the MTA and demand tough compromises from the agency as well as from the state and its citizens. The economic future of the MTA and our region will depend on it.
Gas spending tracks access to public transit
Click the map to enlarge
The New York Times yesterday posted the above map on their Website. With vacation season upon us and gas prices rising, everyone is concerned about how $4-a-gallon gas is impacted the wallets of American consumers, and you can see the full breakdown here.
As the map shows, the percent of income spend on gas is lowest in a few major metropolitan areas. The New York area is bathed in dark purple; Chicago and its surrounding environs is dark purple; Boston, Washington and Philadelphia complete the Northeast Corridor of purple; and the San Francisco Bay Area reveals similar results.
Not coincidentally, those are also the areas in this country with the best public transportation systems. We have, for better our worse, the MTA and New Jersey Transit; Boston has the MBTA; D.C. has Metro; Philadelphia has a comprehensive SEPTA system that links to New Jersey Transit; Chicago has the CTA; and Northern California has BART, CalTrain and MUNI.
Despite this obvious relationship between gas expenditures and public transit access, politicians — even those in public transit-rich areas — are still focused on oil issues. It’s no wonder then that Streetsblog is calling on politicians to change their focus to mass transit expansion.