MTA's in fast lane for big hike

[CPBO]

MTA's in fast lane for big hike

BY PETE DONOHUE

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

 

Wednesday, November 19th 2008, 4:00 AM

 

 

Watts/News

 

Flo Glickman waits on E. 57th St. for an express bus, whose price may skyrocket by as much as 50%.

 

The MTA's bruising budget proposal more than doubles the fare disabled riders pay for a special van service - and socks express bus riders with a 50% hike, the Daily News has learned.

 

Access-A-Ride users would pay twice the base subway-bus fare, which is now $2 but is headed for a big boost unless the state adopts a bailout plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, sources told The News. The doubled fare will be based on the increase, so it will cost more than $4 per van ride.

 

RELATED: MTA PLANNING ENORMOUS CUTS

Express bus riders are looking at $7.50 per trip, up from $5, under the plan being released by the MTA tomorrow, according to sources.

 

"What are they insane?" Liz Salsbury said as she boarded an express bus to Queens in midtown Tuesday.

 

Lawrence Carter-Long, advocacy director for the Disabilities Network of New York City, called raising the now $2 Access-A-Ride fare unconscionable.

 

"Access-A-Ride users by and large are at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale ... people with the least amount of money," Carter-Long said.

 

On an average weekday, Access-A-Ride vehicles carry approximately 25,000 riders. Express buses move more than 90,000 each weekday.

 

Those paltry ridership numbers mask the financial burdens, officials have said. Compared to subways, local buses and commuter trains, express buses and Access-A-Ride vehicle carry few riders and reap little revenue. They have the lowest per trip revenue-to-expense ratios in the MTA network.

 

The News has reported exclusively that the MTA's 2009 budget plan would close dozens of token booths and eliminate a program that moved about 600 former clerks from beyond the glass to help riders with MetroCard vending machines and give directions.

 

The News also reported exclusively that the doomsday budget includes: shutting down the W and Z subway lines; halving the M and G lines so trains make far fewer stops, and stopping weekend and late-night service on dozens of bus routes.

 

To help close a $1.2 billion budget gap, the MTA is seeking to raise fare and toll revenues by about 23%. The base fare will likely rise into the $2.50-to-$3 range.

 

Officials haven't set new target prices for the unlimited-ride MetroCards.

 

Leading transit advocates, financial watchdogs and MTA CEO Elliot Sander have cited several reasons for the authority's fiscal crisis. They include:

 

The state and city's failure over many years to provide adequate mass transit subsidies; drastically lower tax revenues in this severe economic downturn; rising health care, pension and other costs.

 

The Straphangers Campaign and other groups are calling on Gov. Paterson and the Legislature to direct more taxpayer funds to the MTA, which raised fares and tolls three times since 2003, most recently in March.

[CPBO]

ssooo yesterday I was watching Fox 5 and they had Elliot Sander in the hot seat.......they caught up with him getting a shoe shine.....this guy makes some 350k a year when all is said and done.....he gets 40k for a house he lived in before he was CEO.....the house looks like a shack......he also was saying that he rides the train everyday to work.....then Fox 5 showed him getting a personal car ride with an MTA cop 4times in 2weeks......this guy is full of him self......Fox 5 askes him why he needed the car for the day and he said he had a function to attend.....so he had to carry his tux......350k is not excessive?? he should cut his own salary by 250k!! instead of cutting service!!!

 

Did anybody else catch that on fox 5?

[FamousNYLover]

This also applies to Bee-Line BxM4C also, right?

Staten Island and BxM4C Bee-Line riders would not be happy about.

$7.50 for Express Bus is too much money.

 

Senior and disables who can't ride buses/subways would not be happy to paid $4.

 

Slightly little off-topic, I could imigine Long Island Bus is getting worst, etc.

[Radioguy]

Senior and disables who can't ride buses/subways would not be happy to paid $4.

 

For the record...if this is part of a grand ploy to intimidate the state into more funding, as some have speculated, then this is too far. One of the KEY reasons people take AAR, is that they not only qualify under disability, but that they cannot afford the bus and subway rides they need.

 

Many of these people need to take connecting buses from home to subways or other buses for distances that most could walk. That puts them into two-fare zone status, with round trips costing up to $8 if they can physically handle standard bus and subway travel to begin with. Most also cannot afford unlimited ride cards, even if half price. There a lot of these people, and that's why AAR exists.

 

TO SCARE THESE PEOPLE IS DISGUSTING. Most especially so, if this is a tactic, rather than a statement of fact.

[FamousNYLover]

Slightly off-topic, I think cutting B51 bus would not be very good idea, even thought it's low ridership.

 

Many Chinatown folks use it bet. Chinatown/City Hall and Downtown Brooklyn.

I think instead of B51, they should get rid of X25 and add stop on X90 to pickup/drop off passenger at 2nd Av/42nd St and 1st Av/42nd St since X90.

I have spotted on weekend, Chinatown folks were waiting for Weekday B51 at B51 bus stop, not knowing it was weekdays only.

 

M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M7, M11, M27, M31, M34, M35, M42, M50, M57, M60, M66, M79, M86, M96 is getting more crowded.

 

No one like the schedule of M106 bus and it doesn't help too much because there was one lady who wanted to go to 106th St/3rd Av but she did not like it because M106's run on weekdays and weekend are limited.

[via White Plains Road]

ssooo yesterday I was watching Fox 5 and they had Elliot Sander in the hot seat.......they caught up with him getting a shoe shine.....this guy makes some 350k a year when all is said and done.....he gets 40k for a house he lived in before he was CEO.....the house looks like a shack......he also was saying that he rides the train everyday to work.....then Fox 5 showed him getting a personal car ride with an MTA cop 4times in 2weeks......this guy is full of him self......Fox 5 askes him why he needed the car for the day and he said he had a function to attend.....so he had to carry his tux......350k is not excessive?? he should cut his own salary by 250k!! instead of cutting service!!!

 

Did anybody else catch that on fox 5?

 

I seen part of it.....he a punk and a thieve. He makes all this money but donate not one cent to the funding. He's a pathetic liar he damn well know he doesn't ride his subways, buses or commuter railroads. He should be punished by making him ride the subways during rush hours so he could know how it freels to be packed like a sardine or get caught in train delays especially late night waiting for a train for 20 minutes

[MattTrain]

I seen part of it.....he a punk and a thieve. He makes all this money but donate not one cent to the funding. He's a pathetic liar he damn well know he doesn't ride his subways, buses or commuter railroads. He should be punished by making him ride the subways during rush hours so he could know how it freels to be packed like a sardine or get caught in train delays especially late night waiting for a train for 20 minutes

 

 

Wow, big board members don't ride the subway at all, as they claim. I bet some riders aren't too happy to hear or read about those things.

 

You know the wait for a late night subway train will increase to a half hour from 20 minutes. That's scary

 

Make him ride the subway everyday so he can feel the CRUSH HOUR, my term for rush hours.

[Forest Glen]

$7.50 for an express bus? BS. Instead of using it twice a week I'll only be able to use it once a week.

[UlmerPark B6]

ssooo yesterday I was watching Fox 5 and they had Elliot Sander in the hot seat.......they caught up with him getting a shoe shine.....this guy makes some 350k a year when all is said and done.....he gets 40k for a house he lived in before he was CEO.....the house looks like a shack......he also was saying that he rides the train everyday to work.....then Fox 5 showed him getting a personal car ride with an MTA cop 4times in 2weeks......this guy is full of him self......Fox 5 askes him why he needed the car for the day and he said he had a function to attend.....so he had to carry his tux......350k is not excessive?? he should cut his own salary by 250k!! instead of cutting service!!!

 

Did anybody else catch that on fox 5?

 

Eliot had the worst excuse EVER for that day! And the next day, he's only taking the LIRR because he wanted to look innocent in front of the cmaeras. (BUT WHERE WAS THE BODYGAURD?)

[Canarsie143]

Things are getting more and more expensive each day it seems. I mean just today, the Dow dropped below 8000 so, there go people's 401(k)s.

 

To make things worse, the TA keeps saying that its strapped for cash each year and yet, the year after, they have a surplus.

 

As for the disabled riders, I am one of them. I - as a legally blind person - was awarded a half fare card because of that and, its already bad enough that paying for an education is going up. The Subway fare is going up and so will the buses. $1.50 for 5 days a week, for 52 weeks a year, minus weekends and says off. Not to mention the fact that I saw an exposse on the news about TA workers kicking back on the clock.

 

Anyway, I have ranted enough and I may have gone off topic and for that, I apologize but, it all goes with the territory.

[BklynBusMan08]

There must be some state agency that can come in, audit the NYC Transit books, and order them to make prudent cuts.

 

Start with management... far too many cooks. But who will ever cut off their own head?

 

Mergers should lead to consolidation: when MTA Bus and New York City Transit were brought under one umbrella, shouldn't many supervisory and management positions have been trimmed? I'm betting they weren't.

 

Advertising/Marketing: What's necessary and what's excessive. Is a Metrocard bus really necessary? Don't most stores sell Metrocards now?

 

These are small things, but add a million here, and a few million there from each part of the system, and things add up.

 

The idea that bus & subway fares are about to be raised, during a time when more people are being encouraged to go "green" is a joke. $7.50 for express fares? Say goodbye to must customers. It'll be just as cost-effective for people to take cars -- EVEN IF tolls are added to all the bridges.

 

It's not just management, everybody has a hand in this... lack of funding from the city, Albany, the US Government, Unions... the list goes on.

 

Yes, much of what we've heard is to "scare" the public, but still, the "games" being played are sickning.

 

The ultimate loser, sadly, will be us.

[w8Hou]

Slightly off-topic, I think cutting B51 bus would not be very good idea, even thought it's low ridership.

 

Many Chinatown folks use it bet. Chinatown/City Hall and Downtown Brooklyn.

I think instead of B51, they should get rid of X25 and add stop on X90 to pickup/drop off passenger at 2nd Av/42nd St and 1st Av/42nd St since X90.

I have spotted on weekend, Chinatown folks were waiting for Weekday B51 at B51 bus stop, not knowing it was weekdays only.

 

M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M7, M11, M27, M31, M34, M35, M42, M50, M57, M60, M66, M79, M86, M96 is getting more crowded.

 

No one like the schedule of M106 bus and it doesn't help too much because there was one lady who wanted to go to 106th St/3rd Av but she did not like it because M106's run on weekdays and weekend are limited.

 

The ridership on the B51 is so low and should be cut. There is alternative service. The Subway.

 

x25 is the useless route. Very Very low ridership and wasting taxpayers money on that route that Subway is faster the x25 express route.

 

The Manhattan routes should be either be adjusted w/ schedule change and slight increase of headways. There are too many buses running w/ few passengers inside the buses outside of weekday rush hour.

[metsfan]

If per ride fares go up at all you can be sure i will not be in the city much anymore at all.

 

- A

[MTARegional Bus]

 

The idea that bus & subway fares are about to be raised, during a time when more people are being encouraged to go "green" is a joke.

 

 

Not only that but now that prices at the pump are going down people who take public transportation well now have to drive to go to work witch in turns more traffic on the streets and more delays on buses. why are they getting rid of token booths? what happens if the a metrocard vending machines is out of service? what happen if there an emergency?.how are they going to keep track of fare beaters since there is no one there to see it?,some station have police others don't, so it easier for the fare beaters to jump the turnstyle with one problem or they can get throw the wheelchair door with a metrocard and let 5 or 10 friend come in for free.

 

Hiking the fares wont close mta's budget gap it well just make it worse.

[armax1980]

its funny how the MTA budget suddenly gets really bad in a short period of time, right when the transit workers union contract is about to expire in a few months.