Public hearings on the MTA’s proposed service cuts begin tonight in Nassau and Westchester Counties, and will continue over the next week in the five boroughs and Rockland and Suffolk Counties.
Background
The MTA is proposing:
- Major service cuts to MTA subway, bus, and commuter rail throughout the region. These include cancellation of the M and W subway lines, tens of bus routes in NYC and Long Island, and all service on the LIRR’s Ronkonkoma branch east of Greenport (except on summer weekends). They also include reductions in service across the system that will mean less frequent and more crowded subways and LIRR and Metro-North trains. Specific cuts are on the MTA’s website.
- Charging NYC students who currently ride free to and from school. Students would be charged half-fare beginning this September, and full fares in the school year beginning September 2011.
- Cut Access-a-Ride costs by dropping many passengers off at bus stops or subway stations instead of providing door-to-door service.
The agency also plans to lay off over a thousand administrative staff, station agents, conductors, and other transit personnel. All nonunionized workers are taking a 10% pay cut.
These actions will help close a $750 million gap which first appeared after Gov. Paterson and the State Legislature cut $143 million from the MTA’s budget (including money for student MetroCards) last year and revenues from the payroll tax passed last year came in lower than state bureaucrats had estimated. The MTA’s financial situation has rapidly deteriorated due to declining tax revenue.
Locations
The full list of hearings is below. All hearings begin at 6 pm and will not end until all speakers have given their testimony. Speakers can pre-register to speak on the MTA’s website. Testimony will be taken on all parts of the MTA’s proposed budget cuts, not just those that are specific to a hearing’s geographic location. Transit directions are available at the MTA’s website.
Nassau County: March 1. Chateau Briand, 440 Old Country Road, Carle Place.
Westchester County: March 1. White Plains Performing Arts Center, City Center (3rd Floor), 11 City Place, White Plains.
Staten Island: March 2. College of Staten Island (Springer Concert Hall, 1P Building), 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island.
Queens: March 2. Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel (Phoenix Ballroom), 135-20 39th Avenue, Flushing, Queens.
Bronx: March 3. The Paradise Theater, 2403 Grand Concourse (at 187th Street), Bronx.
Brooklyn: March 3. Brooklyn Museum (Cantor Auditorium), 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.
Rockland County: March 4. Holiday Inn (Empire Ballroom), 3 Executive Boulevard, Suffern, NY.
Manhattan: March 4. Fashion Institute of Technology (Haft Auditorium), Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, Manhattan.
Suffolk County: March 8. Riverhead County Center, Court Street, Riverhead.
Comments are also being accepted by e-mail.
[…] gears up to hold hearings on its slate of service cuts. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign has a prime to the hearings, and I wanted to take a few minutes today to once again revisit the issue of free student […]
I take the N53 from the Merrick train station to/from my home. I am been living in Merrick for 4 1/2 years and started taking the bus as soon as I moved. It was one of the selling points when I purchased my home. It is basically very reliable. It makes the commute easy. I hope we can continue to have this line run.
What is this COUNTRY coming too, land of the free NO MORE!!!!! How dare have to pay for students passes, isn’t enough with the taxes we pay and also the percentage that LOTTO gives these agencies…… This country now is owned by foreigners, WHAT A SHAME!!!!! That we have screwed each other as Americans and made sooooo EASY for the foreigners to take us over. We should be ashame and instead of helping each other we bringin our selves DOWN. STOP ALREADY!!!!! MTA workers losing their jobs in the subway stations , WOW, making it easier for terrorist, have’nt u thought of that or is it the plan????? I was so PROUD OF BEING AN AMERICAN, not anymore….
When is the MTA going to settle the contract to pay their MTA workers all the back pay the are owned??? These workers have families and homes morgages to pay and you not making it easy. So if you have to lay off all these people I guess the contract will never be paid to the owkers cause THERE IS NO MONEY. So you take your own people and use as SLAVERY!!!!!!! I was under the inpression that LINCOLN FREED THE SLAVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[…] including ending several bus routes, killing the M and W lines, and increasing student fares, at city-wide hearings this week; the Queens hearing is tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Sheraton LaGuardia in downtown […]
Five people were arrested at the Brooklyn public hearing last night. There was a large and vociferous group of young people protesting the proposed cut of student Metrocards. We have details and photos of the incident at NYCTracks.com
[…] New Yorkers are mad as hell about plans to cut transit service, Access-a-Ride, and free NYC student MetroCards — public hearings across the MTA region have been well-attended and often rowdy, marked by overflow crowds, chants, and even arrests. But without political leadership the cuts may be inevitable. The MTA is facing a $750 million budget gap. […]
[…] Hearings on MTA Service Cuts Begin Today | Mobilizing the Region […]