J. Walder & Co. State of the MTA Address

[SubwayGuy]

Non-MTA cleaners get paid more than $23/hour?B)

About the contractors: Maybe I'm wrong, but the MTA contracting everything out is a major expense.

 

Here's something to think about: Look at the bottom right graph.

 

 

You do realize that "Payroll" includes highly paid executives who have NOTHING to do with providing transportation service?

[INDman]

You do realize that "Payroll" includes highly paid executives who have NOTHING to do with providing transportation service?

 

Sometimes the facts just don't agree with your argument, so you just ignore them.

[asidrane]

Walder has done an OK job, but he has not done enough to shrink the hierarchy and redundant management. He's gone after the hourlies when he should also be going after some of the higher ups. A lot of people in the MTA still have pointless titles, as a result of political patronage or special favors. There's more savings to be had, which won't harm the service. The cuts that were made negatively impacted the service, however if he keeps operating personnel steady, then I am OK with it, but if there's another round of cuts, then Walder's grade would drop again. You need PEOPLE to make the system run, not machines, and not more supervisors/managers.

 

Has the consolidation of agencies and management stopped? I would hope not because it certainly seems like there is a lot of unnecessary management overhead. I wonder how much of the political aspect will prevent some management positions from being reduced.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Private contractors pay their signal workers significantly more than NYCT. I actually know a guy that was high up in signals, but now works for a private company, and when he switched they exceeded even what he thought was a lofty pay increase when he left NYCT. He actually had to rewrite his offer because the original one he submitted was laughed at by the private company with a "That's all you want?" response even though it was MUCH more than his NYCT salary!

 

Private car manufacturers pay their engineers significantly more than NYCT pays Car Equipment superintendents.

 

Railroads pay their locomotive engineers and trainmen significantly more than NYCT pays its train operators and conductors.

 

So...BZZT! Try again.

 

Walder has done an OK job, but he has not done enough to shrink the hierarchy and redundant management. He's gone after the hourlies when he should also be going after some of the higher ups. A lot of people in the MTA still have pointless titles, as a result of political patronage or special favors. There's more savings to be had, which won't harm the service. The cuts that were made negatively impacted the service, however if he keeps operating personnel steady, then I am OK with it, but if there's another round of cuts, then Walder's grade would drop again. You need PEOPLE to make the system run, not machines, and not more supervisors/managers.

 

I did a paid internship for two summers at the MTA down at 370 Jay Street... I never saw so many people BSing before in my life. The first summer one guy was out of the office more than he was there and I would actually do some of his work to take the "load" off of him. B)

 

My second summer the guy who I'd get my tasks from... He was really something. You'd see him at the beginning of the day then he'd go into his office to BS and put his feet up. Even with me being given work, I was bored out of my mind because some days I'd just sit there for hours with nothing to do looking out of the window. Granted, I didn't expect to be working like a slave, but believe me, no one worked hard at all in there. We were given Fridays off for which we were paid for and had free Metrocards during the week to get to and from work, so I did have a few perks, but imagine what the employees get. I mean I was just a high school intern...

[Mark 1]

Yes, the ones who have such high salaries that private sector jobs of similar qualification can't even dream of.

 

Well, if these jobs are so generous as you claim then you should have taken a test(s) to live the "easy" life. Worker benefits do come into play here but on salary alone being generous for the hourly worker, no way. I'll even go on to say Bus operators in particular won't get paid enough for the job and stress they go through on a daily basis.

 

Oh really?

 

Last year as a Plumber made over 90 Grand, of coruse that took five years of School to get to that level. I took a pay Cut to work down here but no regrets im doing a job i love, now...

 

In NINE years in the MTA i havent even seen close to that unless i work like a dog with RDO's.

 

In house Tradepeople in RTO usch as such as Carpenters, Plumbers, Electricians Duct Workers, Steam Fitters, Laborers make no where near as much as thier counterparts outside.

 

Next time use facts it helps....

 

Presenting facts? To some people, facts don't matter!

 

Seriously, I agree with this post and the riding public has no idea what the workers go through day in and day out.

 

Getting back to the topic of Jay Walder, yes he is doing what he can given the situation but the cuts in staff and bus routes were just too deep and they are showing in some areas. I can give him credit for being up front with the current financial situation and he has let the people know what was going to happen no matter how unpopular.

[East New York]

I was going to post my take on Jay, and the state of the TA yesterday, but I'm not going to do it until tomorrow. There is still one more thing I'm looking into.

[East New York]

Ok, so I am a little behind on this, but for good reason. I need to review a few more documents before I make my final comment. Sorry guys!

[QM1to6Ave]

Personally, I think Walder has made some good inroads with cutting down on useless mangement titles, etc, and, to be fair, it is very hard to change a system that has had so much built-in redundant titles, etc, for so long. I do not agree with a lot of the cuts he made, especially in terms of not replacing B/O's who call in sick, etc. In terms of the size of the transit cuts from this past June, I think it could have gone a lot worse than it did, which is to his credit.

 

On the other hand, he promised to do even better for cutting down on these expenses than he has since the beginning, which is what really upsets me. If you cannot realistically do something in a certain time frame, don't promise to do it.

 

In addition, I have heard very little about Walder cutting down on the prices the MTA pays for replacement parts and basic supplies, even cleaning supplies. For a huge organization, the MTA pays ridiculously high prices for things that are seemingly bought in bulk, and should be bought at close to wholesale prices. Remember that fiasco with the special bus fuel, where the MTA ended up paying exorbitant prices per gallon becuase only 1 company submitted a bid? That is the kind of thing I am talking about.

 

The MTA board still seems to be fairly incompetant and secretive, which will hopefully change, but I do not know enough about specific members to make specific statements.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Personally, I think Walder has made some good inroads with cutting down on useless mangement titles, etc, and, to be fair, it is very hard to change a system that has had so much built-in redundant titles, etc, for so long. I do not agree with a lot of the cuts he made, especially in terms of not replacing B/O's who call in sick, etc. In terms of the size of the transit cuts from this past June, I think it could have gone a lot worse than it did, which is to his credit.

 

On the other hand, he promised to do even better for cutting down on these expenses than he has since the beginning, which is what really upsets me. If you cannot realistically do something in a certain time frame, don't promise to do it.

 

In addition, I have heard very little about Walder cutting down on the prices the MTA pays for replacement parts and basic supplies, even cleaning supplies. For a huge organization, the MTA pays ridiculously high prices for things that are seemingly bought in bulk, and should be bought at close to wholesale prices. Remember that fiasco with the special bus fuel, where the MTA ended up paying exorbitant prices per gallon becuase only 1 company submitted a bid? That is the kind of thing I am talking about.

 

The MTA board still seems to be fairly incompetant and secretive, which will hopefully change, but I do not know enough about specific members to make specific statements.

 

Clearly some companies have been turned off by the MTA and so they don't bother to bid. Maybe they need to be more realistic in their demands?

[Shortline Bus]

I not going to repeat everything that others have stated with the diffcult job Chairman Walder has faced. The Pluses and Minus ideas/actions he done has already been discussed. IMO so far he gets a C-Minus grade overall in the 1-plus year on the job he been on the job.

[Transitworkertruth]

Be there if you want to hear the latest beginning at 9AM

[CenSin]

Jay Walder has done a remarkable job with what was given to him. The previous MTA heads never had to deal with the crap Jay Walder did, and plenty of people can't see why he had to do the things he did. At the other end of the spectrum, many also fail to see why union workers can be so unsympathetic to the MTA's financial situation; it's their job to be selfish and defend their own positions and salary just as it's the job of the business-minded heads to keep costs low—and in turn, keep the fares low. Whenever the economic climate gets better, the equilibrium will settle at a point where both sides will be happy.

[SubwayGuy]

...just as it's the job of the business-minded heads to keep costs low—and in turn, keep the fares low. Whenever the economic climate gets better, the equilibrium will settle at a point where both sides will be happy.

 

BZZT! Business people don't care about keeping prices down for customers. 99% of them care only about giving themselves raises at the expense of employees AND customers.

 

True in any agency, any business, any corporation, any government.

[East New York]

BZZT! Business people don't care about keeping prices down for customers. 99% of them care only about giving themselves raises at the expense of employees AND customers.

 

True in any agency, any business, any corporation, any government.

 

Excluding Walmart!

[SubwayGuy]

Excluding Walmart!

 

Especially Walmart! Walmart comes in and pays their people SIGNIFICANTLY less than other competing companies and therefore can charge less but it pays its executives very highly. Walmart kills competition and small businesses in ENTIRE TOWNS largely on the strength of cheap foreign imports.

 

All to benefit the executives who run Walmart.

 

Sam Walton is probably turning over in his grave knowing what his kids did to a once proud company that once only stocked products from AMERICAN suppliers, and once paid fair wages.

[East New York]

Very very true!

[R36 Preservation]

Walder may not be perfect, but he has made some commitments, such as to improve the internal culture at NYCTA and locate areas of waste and inefficiency. Most notable under his tenure so far were the allegations of "falsified" signal reports which received news coverage in the last few months. It is believed that long-standing complacent attitudes and culture by signal workers are in part to blame.

 

The NYCTA, MTA should work with the OIG on this issue and in the end adopt a standard, uniform signal maintenance policy requiring all signal be inspected according to a standard protocol and properly train all workers on the operation and inspection of signals.

 

Unlike in Thomas the Tank Engine, signals are no laughing matter. Wait until the next signal failure strands thousands of passengers. There may also be a possibility of a serious accident because of a broken or improperly maintained signal device.

[R32 3348]

Oh please others before him have served and left and did a better job.

 

The only thing I'll give him credit for is not ordering any more hyshit buses...but that's it.

They "did a better job" because they didn't bother to cut any redundant services or acknowledge the increasingly large hole the was digging itself into. I'm not condoning Walder for cutting all those jobs when there's other areas that could've been focused on (the saved $100 million when the administration took a 15% pay cut; only 15%?). Now it's Walder's job to put the agency in the black and that's why he's cut over $500 million in spending last year (which recurs every year).

So where's my train?

Where's the money to run your train? A month after Walder took office the state cut $143 million from his budget, and then another $200 million in tax revenue when those who organized the bailout package realized they made a miscalculation. His savings and service cuts have taken care of that $$ but he has to continue cutting costs to make sure that the same doesn't happen this year as well.