On Demand
Who's Driving the Train
Friday, June 20, 2008
Recent revelations about free E-ZPasses and Metrocards have put the MTA board under scrutiny. Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for NYPIRG's Straphangers Campaign, talks about the board and its perks.
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The board works for FREE. They are not paid!
How often do they work, is it just a few hours a month? Perhaps the problem is that they don't get paid because they are all rich, they are the owners of society so they don't need to get paid - they do it for free because they are looking out for the owners of society and not the citizens at large.
I have no problem with Board Members and top management getting free passage on MTA facilities. In fact, they should be required to take a significant trip on the subway at least once a week! But lifetime??? E-Z Passes???
they do very little! this job is a political patronage position something to brag about in the country club.
Excellent point, Brian. Also this MTA gets away with just about every silly request they make. The MTA has too much power and before we can get them to get on the ball, as it were, is to pass legislature that removes that power. Legislation is needed. For example first they tell us we need a fare raise and that would do the trick then now the tell us they won't have as much money in the budget as they thought they will need another fare increase and this particular nonsense has been going on for years if not decades with these folks. They don't seem to know anything or play dumb to find out or just don't care! The MTA has to be revamped from top to bottom.
if they're all so rich, why do they insist on free EZ passes? Is it a status thing? Justification for their time spent serving on board meetings? Remember, our mayor doesn't take a salary.
I agree with Randal, free EZ Passes and rail passes are fine while they serve on the Board, especially since they don't get paid. But it should not be lifetime, no way.
The complaints in this segment are overreaching. Police officers are issued their passes not for "official use only," but explicitly for use any time, on or off duty. It is clearly a benefit to all riders to have off-duty police officers on trains and buses.
Mr. Russianoff stated that firefighters get free EZ Passes. This is news to my firefighter husband - where is he getting this info from?
On another note, the board shouldn't get lifetime passes. People give their time on all sorts of boards, uncompensated. Perhaps metro cards and LIRR, etc passes during their time on the board, to ensure that they see the system they are overseeing.
Oh really why do we need this guy anymore? He sounds like he's almost one of them. Who cares if they're nice people their organization sucks and they don't seem to be doing anything that helps. They sound incompetent why is he defending them and avoiding not answering questions.
I'm glad that the MTA board are all aristocrats. This way, I feel gratified that all is as it should be. I'm a peasant, and I would feel lost without the extremely wealthy guiding human societies into a familiar future.
He'd rather not say, he doesn't know, what? Why are we wasting this time slot with him?
Your guest stated it was the wild west in regards to Police and Firefighters given metrocards. This is just false.
If you dont remember, it was about 3 years ago when every cop on the beat and every fire department rig got a metro card because cops couldn't respond to a calls for help run because the station didn't have a live person there and no body had a metro card. This was front page headlines.
After that, everyone was issued special metro cards. Everytime a cop uses it, they must document why they did and it wil come back to them.
Theres one metrocard for each firefighter RIG. Also, must be documented each time its used and why. These metrocard can only be used to respond to runs.
It must be much easier to approve a fare hike when you (or your piad driver) never actually pay one. Let's instead pay them minimum wage without any perks, and they'll have a better handle on what the very bottom of the pay scale faces each time they swipe.
FREE? The reason it cost seven bucks is that it is WORTH MORE to the rider who pays seven bucks to RIDE!
these people are the worst and they do get paid if they are using the ez-pass for free
wake up #1
the MTA is one the most corrupt organizations in the country it's worst than the MOB
Rush him off!!
Gene Russianoff mentions the lack of diversity on the MTA Board, and then went on to say there were few women or minorities....all true, but even more importantly for riders....we need people on the board WHO KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO TAKE THE (*$&%$ SUBWAY!!! and care. That's the issue which is important, rather than playing "gotcha" - I would support them having free MetroCards during the time that they served, just as I think that's a good idea for any employee in NYC.
Nick
Why are retired NYPD officers given free passes. Enough already with such a benefit.
The upper management at the MTA are all given chauffeured limousines as perks. When asked, the New York Times quoted one as saying that they can’t take the subway because their time is too valuable. Of course, never seeing the results of their handiwork, they also make the most inane decisions when it comes to which major capital improvements are most needed, too. The city will bankrupt itself giving away early retirements with full pensions and full benefits to every worker (private sector workers, i.e. taxpayers, remember those?) because it’s easier than negotiating, so why should it treat the MTA management and MTA board any differently? When the house of cards falls, I’ll simply move. That’s if housing isn’t unaffordable long before then.
That last sentence [20] should have read: That's if housing in NYC isn't completely unaffordable long before then.
Nick [18]: I disagree. In fact, I'd like to mandate that the board purchase of $10 metrocards that provide $11.50 toward fares. When they repeatedly experience the idiocy of having to stand in line to add 50 cents so they can use the remainder of their card, it may dawn on them that it probably costs more than 50 cents in total compensation for the MTA employee to collect the 50 cents. As for NYC workers getting free metrocards, this is really beyond belief. There are hundreds of people lined up whenever a NYC job becomes available because they're already overly compensated when compared to working for private sector employers. Why on earth should the rest of us pay still higher transit fares to subsidize a quarter of a million NYC employees? Of course, that figure doesn't count the retirees. Would you propose that benefit for them, too?
Nick [18]: Although I do agree that the board should be made up of people who actually use mass transit and not people from the Hamptons.
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