17 Comments

1. Matt C November 19th, 2008 at 6:02 pm

   Fuck this.

2. will November 19th, 2008 at 9:20 pm

   They aren’t closing any M train stations, as far as I can tell. It’s just not going to run back into brooklyn along the R line. The service cuts are bad but which stations are being “shut down entirely?”

3. Jeremy Sapienza November 19th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

   Sorry, I had heard that independently from someone else, that they would be skipping some underused stops — but that is incorrect, they will just be cutting the South Brooklyn part of the M line. Corrected above.

4. chillinoncentral November 19th, 2008 at 11:53 pm

   This is how they set themselves up to appear in need… they scare everyone so that they can get what they want. Unforrtunately, we have very greedy people running the transit system and they’ve decided to stick their hands out for their piece of a bailout. No requirements to open books, just tell everyone how much you need. I’ll bet they get a billion (the new term for “million”), cut nothing, and then somehow “find” unaccounted for money to use for their raises after the contracts are settled. It wouldn’t be the first time.

5. chillinoncentral November 20th, 2008 at 12:08 am

   The MTA has such a huge and steady ridership income, added to tons of money earned from tolls, and more tons earned from properties… add in the transport subsidy incomes from sources like NYS lotteries and city taxes… where, oh, where is it all going?

6. Caaah November 20th, 2008 at 12:19 am

   Offshore accounts? Ahhh…corruption. So predictable. Anyone want to start a pool on how much money they “find” when they open their books? I’ve got $10 on $650 million.

7. one November 20th, 2008 at 11:00 am

   Unions.

8. Nico November 20th, 2008 at 11:27 am

   Why the hell don’t they cut the V train service instead? There’s never anyone on that train from Midtown to the LES….

   And when oh when will these people learn—public transit is NOT meant to be profitable, EVER. It’s necessary to the economy and infrastructure of the metro area, and it needs to be heavily subsidized…by the gov’t, not by the citizens who depend on it.

9. will November 20th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

   Nico either way we pay for it … the gov’t gets the money from us. I’ve always liked the fact that the MTA gets money from the tolls on bridges and tunnels – the tolls push people toward using the trains and that keeps too many people from overwhelming the bridges and tunnels.

   Anyway the MTA is a disaster from the top down. The unions don’t make it easy, but it’s really the General Motors of transit – the management sucks too.
   And not so ironically it was a Republican, George Pataki who made the MTA finances go from bad to worse- we are reaping the rewards of his bad/greedy decisions now.

   Some good links, for anyone who cares:

   http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_2_subways.html

   http://64.233.169.132/search?q=cache:eiQ3XiaONEAJ:www.nypress.com/16/16/news%26columns/feature.cfm+mta+pataki+bonds&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=safari

   http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060109/fitch

   http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/nyregion/07mta.html?_r=1

10. Joseph November 20th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    Honestly, the subway is a pretty good deal at the moment – $81 for a monthly unlimited pass. If they raise the price to $100 and still keep the service the same, I think that is pretty fair. I mostly use the L train and the service is great.

    This is not to say that the MTA is an efficient, well run organization. With trains that are often packed, it does make you wonder what they are doing with all that money.

11. tracey November 20th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

    Nico is dead on! I guess its time i go out and get hit by a car with my bike

12. Caaah November 20th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

    I ride my bike and spend maaaaybe $10 a month in maintenance. Screw $81 a month.

13. ricmac01 November 20th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    I am so upset with MTA’s deficit/surplus/deficit whining over the past three years. Friggin MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander has the nerve to say he “anticipates an emotional reaction” from New Yorkers upset with the changes. Their accountants must be going crazy trying to keep up with which set of books to bring out this time.

14. chillinoncentral November 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am

    One curious oddity about the announced cuts is that, every time a train stops and then goes, it costs a lot of money… so, express service has always been considered economical by comparison. So, why would cutting out J express service be considered? More would be saved if only one less local train was used at 3:15am on the (always empty anyway) V train and no one would care. J express is utilized by more than 10,000 riders on its lightest-used weekday.

15. Dresden November 21st, 2008 at 1:58 pm

    Boo hoo. We all know the subway is the worst thing about living here. I’ve seen fair hikes, surpluses, deficits, cutbacks, construction -

    the bottomline is the MTA sucks. It’s corrupt and mismanaged and it always will be. Go ahead – tax me an extra $5 a month. I have no choice and no platform to demand reform.

16. Caaah November 21st, 2008 at 3:45 pm

    Chillin–you’re right about the express thing–it doesn’t really make sense. The stops the J express skips between Myrtle and Marcy will still be covered by the M even if the Z were cut. I don’t understand their logic, really. Does the J, when running express, skip any stops past Broadway Junction in Queens? I haven’t been in that direction.

    And as for the V, for all I know it may get crowded in Queens, but that line already has 5 different trains running between Jackson Heights and Forest Hills.

17. Mopar November 25th, 2008 at 1:41 am

    The V doesn’t really run at all in Queens, and neither does the G past the first Queens stop, despite the fiction of the schedule. I love the subway.