My son goes to school in Manhattan $206 monthly ticket(student) My husband commutes $308 monthly--son needs Metro-Card($80) if the fares go up 23% or whatever the exact number is we really can't swing it. It's already almost $600 a month--$700 a month for Metro-North???!!! Come On Albany Help us out!!

Amazing that everyone here is blaming the MTA and not a generation of Albany politicians.

I take the B37, which runs along 3rd avenue every day to work. I should mention that it can get very croweded. Granted, the subway is on 4th avenue and there is a bus on 5th. However, the station is not handicapped accessible. For anyone who can't manage stairs (disabled, elderly, etc), the trip from 1st,2nd, or 3rd avenue is very long

Link to Article referenced by Pat #8 above:
Must read!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/business/02global.html?ref=opinion

I agree with David from Brooklyn (12). As NYC gets more expensive, the people that actually work in the day to day operations of the city will be forced to leave. How can low wage employees afford to live here? Let's assume that many low wage workers live in areas that are already underserved by mass transit. How long will they put up with poor transit service?

I often take the Q56 to Woodhaven, Queens for shopping. I have arthritis. If this bus line is discontinued, I will NOT be carrying packages up and down the steps of the elevated "J" train. I will NOT be shopping in Woodhaven.

Has everyone forgotten how the MTA went from having a huge surplus to a huge deficit without anyone investigating?
This is just another example of the people having to pay the price for corruption and greed.
Also, Manhattan is not the only borough in the city, nor is it the largest.
I am sorry that the Upper East Side is suffering so much, what with having to 'crowd' into the train, but those of us that live 45 min to over an hour commute away from the city, those of us who make this city run should not be forgotten either.

it seems like the people doing the cutting aren't public transit users. many of the lines being reduced or cut are in underserviced areas that already struggle. the woman who called on behalf of her mother is a perfect example, the "alternatives" they are proposing are not viable for many of the actual users.

For years, the MTA has been run by people who apparently do not use it for transportation on a regular basis. None of them have ever waited for the F train at Second Avenue for an hour and a half in the wee hours of the morning.

These fare hikes and cuts in services are going to turn the subway into a war zone. Riders are going to be angry and frustrated and will turn to graffiti and vandalism to occupy their time while they wait for a train.

The MTA needs new leadership.

RE: Subways

Again, the twenty minute wait time is more of a wish than a reality. I have had to wait up to forty minutes once for a late night E Train with no announcements, watching A train after A train come and go. when the E did come, it was and it still is late at night standing room.

The subways have gotten more crowded over the years and these actions will make no change in that except for the outer lying areas where there are fewer people.

any day now, those ppl making over 200k are going to turn around, and say, "why is my empty cappucino mug still sitting on my dinner table," and the response will be, "because none of our bus-boys could get to work, because rents went so high locally that they had to move further out of town, and then they canceled their mass transit lines!"

Re: ending overnight on the M23.

Though granted the bus is not crowded after 11 PM most nights, it is still a vital route across manhattan, and as it currently runs it is NEVER on schedule causing long wait periods and at times comes two at a time.

Why not simply use smaller buses which will be cheaper to run than the long accordian-buses that are currently in service?

Did I hear Brian right? How can the MTA justify cutting the B25? The line is overcrowded. To beigin with the MTA needs to be adding more buses on that line! It's the one bus that runs along Fulton. Unless the MTA decides to run the A/C regualry on weekends, at least four very populous neighborhoods will be screwed every weekend! Why do the people in BKLYN always have to suffer the MTA?

These cuts will make public transit more unreliable and will make more people leave public transit. - Cuts in the subway late at night and further cuts of 'G' Service (didn't know it was possible to cut more of it without eliminating it all together)clearly demonstrate a big disconnect between the economic realities and economic development of the City and the MTA. As The City continues to develop LIC in Queens and Williamsburg the MTA has decided to eliminate subway service on the 'G' line. As more jobs are really services jobs that are NOT 9 to 5 jobs, where low-paying workers work off hours and weekends it means that these people will have fewer subway service and that it will take them an hour and a half to 2 hours to get home.

Could the big MTA deficit be part of the $900 million dollar loss to their investments in the Depfa Bank of Ireland, which made the MTA the loser in a credit swap, mortgage securities loss/fraud. Three Wisconsin school districts went belly up, Enron style also. So we must pick up this loss? Where was the CFO; in Wisconsin three CFO's didn't read the prospectus because it was too thick! See the NYT, 11/2 article by Duhigg and Dougherty; these reporters did their due dilgence. Where's the rest of the Press on this? Why does Sanders get a buy on this fiscal disaster?

If the the MTA is so broke, why does it not get rid of the fun pass, the unlimited ride cards and discounts?

No cuts for Staten Island?

In general, I can't understand people in Manhattan complaining about bus line cuts. There are so many options. But in the outer boroughs, cutting buses is just going to encourage people to drive more.

of course the fair should go up. bills have to be paid for. albany has failed us yet again.
i don't mind paying more for less but why don't they also raise the gas tax, spread the pain.

Thinking of buying a bicycle, for the first time since I've lived in the city (15 years).

Anecdote: I once heard some tourists on the subway platform saying: "I don't know how New Yorkers do it - look at this, its filthy."

And I looked around and saw the chipped concrete, dripping sludge from the ceiling, rats, garbage, unidentifiable crud everywhere, and realized: Wow, this is totally disgusting. And we just tolerate it. Why?

More driving in from Jersey and less counting on unreliable public transportation, especially at connections. Thank gd for bestparking.com

It is ridiculous to truncate the M104 bus as proposed, at present one of the very few lines with an "L" shaped-route, traveling both north/south & east/west without requiring a transfer. It is an extremely useful route, that is always packed throughout its run.