A number of private bus companies and van drivers are trying to pick up the slack left by this summer's MTA's service cuts. They're thinking private enterprise could operate those routes more efficiently than the public sector -- and even make a profit.

Will the Nets keep their promise and put "Brooklyn" in their name when they move to their new arena?  Matthew Schuerman, WNYC Radio reporter, gives us an update.

For years, New Yorkers have been complaining about “the hole in the ground” at Ground Zero. But now, if you look hard and from the right locations, One World Trade Center is beginning to take its place in the New York City skyline.

A team spokesman confirms that the team submitted an application to change its name. But the spokesman wouldn’t specify what the desired name would be or whether it would use “Brooklyn” or “New York” as the geographic name.

Almost 150 employees of the MTA earn more in overtime than from their base salaries, according to an audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The report assails the MTA's lax attitude towards overtime and calculates that the Authority spent nearly $600 million last year paying employees time-and-a-half.

To see how support for a union at the E-ZPass customer service center on Staten Island has fallen off this year, all you have to do is show up on a Thursday. That’s the day when workers there, as well as at other places where there are workers represented by the Communications Workers of America union, wear red shirts to show their solidarity. And what does it look like there?

Almost 150 employees of the MTA earn more in overtime than from their base salaries, according to an audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. The report assails the MTA's lax attitude towards overtime and calculates that the Authority spent nearly $600 million last year paying employees time-and-a-half.

To see how support for a union at the E-ZPass customer service center on Staten Island has fallen off this year, all you have to do is show up on a Thursday. That’s the day when workers there, as well as at other places where there are workers represented by the Communications Workers of America union, wear red shirts to show their solidarity. And what does it look like there?

It used to be that straphangers late for work or school because they got stuck on the subway could call or write a letter to the MTA New York City Transit. The transit agency would write back -- in about three weeks or so -- with a note detailing whether a delay occurred on a specific line at a particular time.

In Staten Island, police have made one arrest and are expected to make another shortly for last weekend's assault on an 18-year-old high schooler who was heading home from his job busing tables early last Saturday morning.

The city is building a park out of a 1.6-acre piece of land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn -- where WNYC used to have two transmitter towers back when New York City owned the station. The towers were in use from 1937 to 1990, until the station began broadcasting its AM frequency from the Meadowlands.

The MTA is giving monthly and weekly MetroCard users a choice: higher fares or higher fares.

As previously reported, the MTA is proposing to limit the number of times that riders can use weekly and monthly MetroCards. But in the fare hike plan that’s being made public Wednesday, the MTA is presenting a second option that would make the MetroCards more expensive but keep them unlimited. The MTA will then judge the public’s reaction to the two ideas and choose one of the two plans.

Matthew Schuerman, Reporter, WNYC Radio, and Andrea Bernstein, WNYC reporter and director of the Transportation Nation blog, discuss the MTA's proposal for fare hikes on buses, trains and EZ pass users (tolls).

Weigh in on the fare hikes.

The MTA is giving monthly and weekly MetroCard users a choice: higher fares or higher fares.

As previously reported, the MTA is proposing to limit the number of times that riders can use weekly and monthly MetroCards. But in the fare hike plan that’s being made public Wednesday, the MTA is presenting a second option that would make the MetroCards more expensive but keep them unlimited. The MTA will then judge the public’s reaction to the two ideas and choose one of the two plans.

MTA officials are planning to eliminate the unlimited one-day “Fun Pass,” saying that the tourist-friendly MetroCards have become too friendly for subway scammers.

MTA officials are planning to eliminate the unlimited one-day “Fun Pass,” saying that the tourist-friendly MetroCards have become too friendly for subway scammers.

The MTA is developing a way to let people know where their bus is—if not when it will arrive—that’s supposed to save the authority tens of millions of dollars.

This approach will send the information directly to riders’ mobile phones. And it’s cheaper to implement because it will piggy back on technology that’s being installed for another initiative, the transition from magnetic-striped MetroCards to computer chip-enabled “smart cards.”  For more on this story, go to TransportationNation.org

New York City closed an underground water tunnel on Monday that's been used for the past 10 years to flush out the notorious Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The closure is supposed to pay off in the long-term by allowing $135 million worth of improvements to take place, though it also introduces some short-term risks while the tunnel is out of operation.

The city closed an underground water tunnel Monday morning that's been used for the past 10 years to flush out the notorious Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The closure is supposed to pay off in the long-term by allowing $135 million worth of improvements to take place, though it also introduces some short-term risks while the tunnel is out of operation.

With a loud rumble and several splashes, a giant boring machine finished the last bit of tunnel for the No. 7 subway extension at about 4:15 this afternoon.