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Will Albany tell the region’s transit riders to “drop dead,” or come to their rescue? March 25 is the point of no return, when the MTA will prepare the system for service cuts and higher fares.
According to media reports, the State Assembly and many State Senators are backing a variant of the Ravitch plan that includes $2 tolls on the East and Harlem River Bridges, a payroll tax throughout the 12-county region, an 8% fare increase, and multiple institutional and accountability reforms at the MTA.
But there are not enough votes in the Senate to pass a plan yet. Holdout senators include Kevin Parker, Carl Kruger, Ruth Hassell-Thompson, Pedro Espada, and Ruben Diaz Sr., who oppose tolls even though their transit-riding constituents far outnumber those driving to Manhattan. In an editorial, the Daily News said the holdouts were “threatening the well-being” of their constituents and called on Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith to “fight like hell” for a rescue plan.
Campaign for New York’s Future members met with legislators in Albany today, and have kept up the pressure closer to home. For example, Transportation Alternatives recently collected nearly 1,000 letters from Queens residents who support bridge tolls and oppose fare hikes and service cuts. Streetfilms was there to document (higher quality video is here).
TSTC and other Campaign for New York’s Future representatives will be back in Albany on March 18 bearing petitions from transit riders. New Yorkers can print and sign the petitions here and send e-mails through KeepNewYorkMoving.org.
Update 3/13: The Campaign is also organizing meetings and a bus ride up to Albany on the 18th. If you’re interested in being part of this effort, sign up here by today, March 13.
Mr. Spitz is making the classic error that is often made in arguing against both of the federally funded megaprojects, east side access and second avenue subway, that capital and operating funds are interchangable. All of the federal dollars committed to those two federally funding mega projects are legally mandated to go to new capital projects.
Congress would have to change the law that authorizes federal spending to allow it. Further, both projects are significantly along in construction. Changing them now would cause billions of dollars to be wasted to no effect. Finally, now is not the time to be spending capital dollars on operation expenses. NY State, City and the Federal government should be accelerating transit capital projects across the country.
Both of these projects will ultimately be hugely beneficial, economically and from a mobility perspective. Changing or canceling them would be tragedy at this point, especially given the current economic environment.
Claiming a $1.2 billion operating deficit for 2009 growing to almost $3 billion in 2012, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is considering alternate plans to close the alleged shortfall. The MTA is threatening escalation of subway and bus fares to $2.50 or $3 per individual ride, raising 30 day MetroCards to either $99 or $103 plus similar increases for Express Buses plus higher tolls on bridges and tunnels. These painful commuting and other travel costs scheduled for June are to be combined with drastic service reductions including elimination of some subway and bus routes that involving significant layoffs of MTA workers.
In response, the political establishment has collectively lined up behind an ostensibly less painful plan devised by former MTA head Richard Ravitch, which includes a new payroll tax to be paid by all employers in the 12 county New York City and suburban region served by the MTA. In addition to the payroll tax, which could have a. detrimental effect on the Obama stimulus package, Ravitch’s plan imposes toll fares on heretofore free bridges plus initial subway and bus fare raises of 8 percent followed by annual fare increases based on the rate of inflation… Subway and bus service would remain unchanged at least at the start.
Actually, a reasonable argument could be made that there are alternate solutions eliminating the need for any of the aforementioned more or less painful measures. Under one scenario, the MTA could substitute intelligent engineering options, especially light rail, for two Manhattan Eastside megaprojects, primarily the Second Avenue Subway and secondarily East Side Access. The consequence might not only relieve the necessity of a payroll tax plus fare and toll bridge increases but also release capital funds available for funding long-overdue light rail projects on the North and West Shores of Staten Island and rail extensions to Douglaston-Little Neck Queens and Mill Basin in Brooklyn.
In this respect, the first, 1.7 mile, from 96th to 63rd Street, of the Second Avenue Subway, is expected to cost $4.65 billion, according to figures submitted by the MTA to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Completion in 2015 is expected to relieve drastic overcrowding on the IRT Lexington Avenue Subway line…
Former President Bush pledged a little over $1.3 billion in increments, accounting for 28 .9 percent of the cost. New York State is providing $450 million, 9.7 percent of the cost from the State Transportation Bond Act of 2005. Consequently the MTA is required to finance the remaining nearly $2.9 billion, approximately 61.4 percent, from bonds which involve substantial annual finance costs, toll revenues, fares, service cuts, etc. If this $2.9 billion were available for other purposes besides the Second Avenue Subway,-the need for payroll taxes, higher fares, service reductions and layoffs, would be substantially lessened if not eliminated.
A similar concept can be drawn from analysis of the East Side Access project. Savings of approximately $1.2 billion in construction could be realized by halting excavation by the MTA of a Deep Cavern Station and instead linking Long Island Railroad East River Tunnels directly with five existing platform tracks at Grand Central terminal. (www.irum.org)
The 1.7 mile, $4.65 billion Second Avenue Subway when completed in 2015 would admittedly relieve overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue IRT line. But, almost immediate relief for Lexington Avenue IRT riders could be achieved by allowing use of MetroCards at 11 Metro-North stations in the Bronx and Manhattan.
Further alleviation for Lexington Avenue commuters would be realized in two years by substituting state of art street level boarding light rail on Second Avenue for the Subway at 10 percent of the cost or approximately $500 million.(www.irum.org) This would provide the additional benefit of releasing over $1 billion in FTA capital money pledged by former President Bush for the long-overdue rail extensions on the North and West Shores of Staten Island and to Mill Basin in Brooklyn and Douglaston-Little Neck in Queens:
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