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Thursday, July 26, 2007
Lee Sander, CEO and Executive Director of the MTA, explains the planned subway fare and toll hike in the face of a budget surplus.
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It is simply outrageous the fares are going up when the subway service is at its worst. The A train for example. During rush hour 10 to 20 minutes between trains. Don't believe me then ride the train.
Suggestion: massive pay cuts for all MTA executives.
Also raise the fare on the weekly and single rides and lower the monthly passes.
Have the tourists make up the budget shortfalls.
A rate hike is a disgrace.
One could justify any amount or kind of rate hike based on the threat of "possible future deficits".
To raise the fares on public transportation while trying to reduce vehicle congestion makes NO sense whatsoever.
Does inflation ever go down, and if so, will rates go down accordingly?
Mr. Sander - The Times Square shuttle platform was supposed to be reconfigured as part of the rebuilding of the Times Square station. What happened? How many more years do shuttle riders have to walk all around the tracks to get to the trains?
Just had another thought, tying two themes together. With the raging gaps in the income distribution, rich getting hyperrich, why not finance the public transportation deficit with a tax on limousines?
It's not fair to raise fairs at the rate of inflation, because what about all the people who's raises don't raise at the rate of inflation. There are people struggling just to pay the fares as they are now. It is becoming more and more less affordable to live in New York, and this certainly won't help.
wait a minute i thought inflation was 4 percent. why the extra 2 1/2 percent? i am for the increase by the way but i want an independant to review the books. (NOT THE FAKE ONES)WINK WINK
Mr. Sander:
Live in NYC, Daily rider, as are my children (5 & 2); So happy with the renovations at the major stations. Can you tell us the plans for putting in elevators in the stations? Which stations and when?
Thank you.
If NYC were to get congestion pricing (and the money from congestion pricing is supposed to be set aside for mass transit improvements), would that prevent a fair hike?
Hello:
Regular fare increases on the MTA? Are we going to get a corresponding increase in the quality of service?
Frankly, it's dismal. I let New York for 6 years, and now I'm back, and the subway is slower, smellier, dirtier, and ruder.
Can my fare increase go to cleaning the 168th ad Broadway station? It obviouosly has not been scrubbed since the 1020s.
Thanks,
Eric
Washington Hts.
Mr. Sander-
Even though I have faith in you personally, I am still distrustful of MTA budget statements after the 2002/2003 scandal of keeping two sets of books. This makes it hard to stomach these proposed fare hikes.
PS- Please do something about the clarity of subway announcements. 9 out of 10 times I've seen a conductor making an announcement, they are NOT TALKING INTO THE MICROPHONE! Conductors should know that if you don't speak into the microphone, people can't hear you.
We're all used to advertisements on the subway -- why not just let Disney, or HBO, or whoever, just 'adopt' a subway car? They could even adopt a whole subway line! I'd be happy to take the Coco Cola line downtown if it meant it were still two dollars a ride in five years!
Why can't the MTA treat the subways like building a new football stadium? Maintaining control of the line, but giving exclusive ad rights for a certain number of years to a company (let's say Target or IKEA for example) on a specific train line and that revenue would pay for maintenance of that train line and stations. Some ad space on the inside could be saved for allocation to non for profit organizations.
What is with all the softball questions to Lee Sander.
Is Brian and Lee Sander going out?
Come on????!!!
Brian-
Thanks for airing my comments. I've rarely heard such a long non-answer.
The 2nd avenue subway seems to be a economically debatable and discretionary project. Is there any consideration to dropping this project considering that it carries such a high price tag?
I have worked with the MTA on the major architecture and engineering projects currently underway. The waste, inefficiencies and plain incompetance of MTA employees on these projects is appalling. Why should the public have to pay for the agencies issues?
Perhap we need to privatize to make NYC public transportation affordable.
If you want to have fares indexed to inflation, ALL FARES, including Taxi and Limos, LIRR, MetroNorth should be indexed so that everyone, and not just subway commuters pitch in. If the subway system needs more money, by all means, everyone should provide a little
I wonder if there are any scheduled increases in MTA executive compensation that will coincidentally coincide with this proposed fare hike?
ever notice how fare hikes are always in "off" election years
ie no gubernatorial or mayoral election.
often right after gubernatorial election.
With the proposed price increases, are there any thoughts about introducing a reduced monthly fare for full-time students? I've lived in other cities both in the US and abroad who have done this; it seems sensible for those are earning no or minimal income due to the the positive process of furthering an education.
Brian,
I'm always amused by the selective memory of some people. Do they really believe that the subway system is in a worse shape than it used to be? They should look at the subways in the 70s and 80s. This system is as good as a 100 year old system gets.
A better question for Mr Sander is how will he keep the system in a state of good repair, replacing old trains, rails, switches and pumps? Ignoring system improvements exposes us to the same problems currently experienced by ConEd with the recent steam pipe explosion. Poor maintenance and investment now means delays, problems and accidents in the future.
The system needs to be funded adequately for it to exist in the future. We should pressure our elected representatives into allocating more funding to mass transportation improvements.
Why has the MTA allowed its property to be sold to the lowest bidder when it is in such a financial crisis? The Vanderbilt Yards (Atlantic Yards) in Brooklyn were a sweetheart deal. The accepted bid was way less than other bids for the land/air rights. Hundreds of millions of dollars were squandered by the MTA in that case. And the city's West Side Yards bid that was originally accepted by the MTA was rightly rejected by state legislators because it was egregiously low. If the deal had gone through almost $1 Billion could have been lost. They have no right to ask riders for more money.
The congestion pricing proposal presented in Albany by the Bloomberg administration, had as one of its supporting points the benefit of congestion pricing to the MTA -- the provision of added funds for MTA infrastructure improvments, offseting of MTA expenses, etc.
If this proposal had recieved recieved approval in Albany as the Mayor wanted, would the MTA still see a need to raise fares and put budget surpluses in reserve?
Crowdsourcing has been used in a variety of scientific application for years.
Two among many Examples:
1. In Science Education there was a project about 15-20 years ago in which children at schools scattered around the country measured the acidity of ponds and streams in their neighborhoods. The results were sent to a central location and compiled to show how acid rain carried pollutants across the land.
2. Various mathematical calculations requiring a tremendous amount of computer power have been carried out by folks working "in parallel" on individual parts of the problem. One example of this activity has been determining so-called Golomb Rulers (google this term to see all the combined work done by many folks). [These are the shortest "rulers" that have exactly n (UNEQUALLY spaced) inch-marks on them and on which each PAIR of marks makes distinct measurements.] So far, solutions have been found for rulers with up to n=24. n=25 is being worked on now.
If finances are so tight, why not abandon the 7-train extension to 34th / 11th Ave. This is truly the 'train to nowhere.' While the 2nd Ave subway extension will actually serve the legitimate purposes of easing the horrific overcrowding of the 4/5/6 lines, and serve a community that is sorely lacking in subway options, the 7-line extension serves no constituency at all other than real estate speculators. I'm not against development of the far West side, and I do think adding a subway line to to their will help, but the with finances as they are, now is not the time for this. Also, the map for the 7-extension is really stupid. Why wouldn't they have it connect to 34th / 8th, the A/C/E line? As they currently propose it, you would have to go several stops north and then transfer, in order to go south a single stop. It's pretty ridiculous. Instead of helping real estate developers the MTA should be help people who actually already live in neighborhoods that lack subway access.
Having spent a lot of time in Paris and London (and even key US cities like DC and SanFran), the MTA has a lot to learn about running a clean and efficient public transit system - especially, the subway system. Price increases for tolls & tunnel should be funding an infrastructure of public transit that moves us away from our dependence on the car. What type of benchmarking has Mr. Sander done? How about creating an Innovation Challenge to spur new ideas about reducing energy costs, increasing ridership and improving the congestion in the city? It seems to me that rates go up and the quality of service goes down...it looks like the answers will not come from Mr. Sander and his organization.
Finally, let's use the great artistic resources of this city to beautify the existing subway stations.
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