Cuomo is too sly for our own good.
He demands cost reductions that can only happen if the MTA’s agencies take on the unions but he doesn’t actually say “time to take them on”.
Frankly no change will happen until a real leader stands up and says the obvious “it’s us or it’s the unions but it can’t be both”.
8
Didn’t the MTA just purchase Grand Central Station property? Where did they get the money for that?
1
I agree with Cuomo.
We could throw all the money in the world at the MTA, and they'd still scream 'deficit'. Their biggest problem is mismanagement, lack of oversight, and A.D.D. (they'd rather focus on and spend money on shiny new toys and sexy projects , than focus on the unexciting but essential basics).
How much did we spend on the Second Ave line (which to my surprise, didn't even end up extending down to the Far Side of the East Village...) .... or the new Fulton Station (which, btw is still a directional Hot Mess? It takes ten minutes, and multiple walks up, down and all around the various stairwells and tunnels, to ultimately locate the subway line/platform you want)....or the Hudson Yards stations?
Meanwhile, the majority of other stations have been languishing for decades.... elevators and escalators that are routinely Broken (you talk about a 'racket' to be an elevator/escalator 'repair' man for the MTA, eh? It's in their interest to Not properly fix the elevators/escalators, because each breakdown means, yup, you guessed it.... a solid three or so hours of union (overtime?) pay.) Station platforms that are routinely 'raining' rain water.... support beams and ceilings regurgitating a mysterious brownish 'slime' onto commuters. A bus system, much of which operates like that of a third world.... no pre-payment options, so each bus stop = dozens of new passengers having to front-door board and pay, OneByOneByOneByOne (with bus stops routinely Not announced).
4
@Lisa -- you seem not to realize that the Fulton street station /Oculus was driven by Cuomo -- it's his pet baby.
And like most Governors, he's raided the MTA budget to get money for other things he wants ... like a ski resort in the Adirondacks.
As it happens I know a MTA elevator repair guy, now retired. The MTA bought custom elevators in almost all cases because they were retrofit, and constraints were complex. There is little standardization, again because they were retrofits, had to be shoe-horned in, rather than stations designed to take a standard design/model. No surprise, this has not worked out well. Most are very heavily used (no surprise), break down often, and parts are a problem.
On top of that, the MTA pay scale isn't all that great and elevator repair people are in high demand in NYC.
5
@Lee Harrison
Besides the god-awful elevators they're also burdened with the train control government sanctioned monopoly. The cost is extreme amounting to the majority of Fast Forward. Not saying anything about reliability of the government sanctioned system. When Byford came he was saying he intended to rebuild all the paddle mechanisms in-house and put it in order but he soon learned to get along.
2
Why does this article not mention that Albany has diverted billion of dollars away from the metro system and that has caused many of the problems. Cuomo owns this and he is blaming others.
11
I hate Andrew Cuomo. I hate the MTA. I may now be at the point where I hate Andrew Cuomo more for sitting on this issue for 8 years before lifting a finger and now ramming it all down our throat.
10
Am I imagining it or is NYT really in favor of uncontrolled MTA increases? One would think so from reading this article. To attach certain conditions and accountability to the increases sounds reasonable to me. I'm embarrassed when friends from other parts of the world visit me and I have to take the subway with them. Really, people, in a city with an average apartment price of 1 Million!! I'm with Gov. Cuomo on that one!
3
Without breaking the unions' stranglehold, MTA "reform" is doomed . . . while politicians fiddle, it burns.
4
All of NYC infrastructure is in a death spiral. The overly generous pensions promised civil servants will overwhelm the budget for decades, depriving the system of needed investment dollars. All in all, this "blue" city and state is an embarrassment.
1
Several Train Stations on the B,D line have been closed for months and don't reopen when they say they will which ruins people's daily commutes. When they are reopened all they have are new shiny mosaic tile and flat screen TV's. Millions of dollars wasted on pointless superficial improvements and no track or signal work improvements. The MTA blows money away on pointless things and they need to be managed better and not raise fares. We don't need hand-placed tiles of clouds on 72nd street we need more trains that actually run on time.
3
I don't care do you?
So I've not been here long but, ya'll need to PAY to have these all of these STATIONS CLEANED constantly. Not half swept....
It is just gross. Get some air QUALITY control down there.
Add some more cars.
TRY to keep a schedule l that is reliable
There needs to be a loop around Central Park.
YOU need a express bus route in the city so pick a Ave and close it.
Lose and Buyout every Employee you can. You can't afford the pensions. Most of this should all be automated at this point on anyway.
Sell some more add space for some extra coins?
Can your communities be responsibly fiscally for their station upkeeps?
Does all this cost 40 billion yet. You can make the check payable to me.
2
New York and Boston are examples of mass transit systems in large cities in the U.S that are a disgrace. They are run by lawyers and political hacks. Their solution to all problems is more money. Put engineers and technically competent people in charge and create a transit plan for no cars in central city by 2050.
If they cannot create an effective plan, visit Helsinki, Paris, Stockholm or any number of cities in Europe with smart, efficient transit systems.
5
The MTA is incompetent, apathetic, and corrupt, with little accountability. Without a doubt it is broken, has been broken, and will continue to be broken for a long time.
6
I'd be more sympathetic to Cuomo if he hadn't spent so much money on station renovations instead of train maintenance.
3
The first sentence of the article is highly debatable.
Yes, they need more money. But if you increase fares you may lower ridership, and have falling revenues.
It’s debatable, the idea that higher fares are the answer.
2
I recently spent a week in Singapore. Whenever I entered a subway stop, it felt like I was entering a very good airport. Air-conditioning everywhere, fully functional escalators and elevators, glass walls shielding the waiting public from the tracks and train noise, spotlessly clean, clear directional signs, audible directions in multiple languages on the trains. And the average ride cost was USD 1.50. Why can we bring in those people from Singapore to fix the NYC subways?
11
@Sipa111 Because they are Singaporean. Both the people who manage and work at their subway, and the riders who treat it with care and don't trash it. In all aspects, first and foremost - competence and care, it's the opposite of what we have in New York.
6
@Sasha I don't think that's it. One aspect is that the city-state and country of Singapore is run by an authoritarian government that is famous for punishing people for chewing gum and, in the past, men for having hair that touches or goes over their shirt collar. The other one is that Singapore has a transit policy that recognizes the importance of managing limited space and discourages driving. Amongst those is a congestion charge, which is rigorously enforced.
3
@Sipa111 - I was also going to say that the floor was so clean you could eat off it, but off course, eating in strictly forbidden in the Singapore subway.
5
The Governor is so angry at the MTA, because he knows he has not done his job overseeing the state’s mass transit system. The solution to the MTA woes was already in place before our man-child Governor’s most recent verbal assault on the MTA. Mr. Byford, a first-rate manager with a vision for improving the MTA, had been hired. Real public servants were also trying to find revenues to fund improvements in the subways. One other thing, it might help if the Governor would apologize to all of us for ignoring mass transit and underfunding the subways for the last eight years.
7
"New York City’s subway and bus system needs higher fares to shore up its finances and to make much-needed improvements in service."
Why print this debatable statement as absolute fact?
Lowering fares, which would increase ridership and make subways/buses more attractive compared to taxis, could be a more effective solution to public transit's woes than raising fares.
Many transit experts would argue this case. I would too.
Think about it.
At $2.75 per person, subway fares are already at a point where, if a few people are travelling a relatively short distance, the cost of a cab ride is in the same ballpark as taking the subway.
This point is particularly acute when taking into account the existence of larger taxis that seat five people easily. $13.75, the single ride subway fare for five people, gets you from the World Trade Center to Washington Square Park in a cab. Is the cost of the tip worth the comfort, flexibility, and ease of a taxi? You bet.
Raise subway fares further and that equation becomes less favorable towards public transit.
Real analysis on operating leverage and demand elasticity needs to be done before such a bold pronouncement can be made.
9
@AGuyInBrooklyn
London has much higher fares than NY - price increases haven't reduced ridership at all. The subway needs cash, and absent a congestion charge the only way for more revenue will be a series of fare increases.
3
@AGuyInBrooklyn Bingo - NYT should refer to its own article from a year ago - "The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth" - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-construction-costs.html - to know that in this one case, Cuomo is right - cut the woeful waste first, before asking for any new money.
4
MTA operations and capital budgets are separate. Both are necessary for the improvement of the system. Which begs the question why the MTA is spending the money to build up new portions of an electrical shop complex on 54th Street in Woodside, presumably from the capital budget. Such building upgrades might be needed, but doubtfully it should be a priority relative to the extent of the system used by millions of riders. The priorities don't appear to be straight.
1
I remember my first visit to NYC in 1972, a subway/bus token was 35 cents. I Googled the value of that in today's money and it shows it was $2.10 in 2018 dollars. So if the fare is raised to $3 to fix the system, I think it would be worth it. But the money needs tight oversight.
4
The easy solution to any problem is always more money. Why do I have a feeling that those in power at the MTA, all pull in really really big salaries, no doubt far more per year than Cuomo is paid. How about a huge savings for state and city government, no one is paid more than the states Governor.
6
@Heidi -
The Governor of NY is paid 180 k$
Andrew Byford is paid 325 k$
Surely you understand there are considerable advantages to being Governor that do not accrue to running a transit authority?
Read here:
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/List-Report-Highest-Paid-New-York-State-Employees-Empire-Center-Salary-474870603.html
3,568 state government employees were paid more than Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year. The highest paid ones are medical administrators and football coaches ... the latter at NY State colleges that sure aren't challenging for national titles.
I don't begrudge Byford his salary; compare to Stony Brook’s football coach Charles Priore at $418,219 and Buffalo’s Lance Leipold at $413,992.
Leipold's money goes a lot farther in Buffalo too.
3
Last I checked about $1.10 of every ride goes to pensions and
healthcare for MTA workers. And the MTA's archaic rules
allow padding of pension calculations based on overtime and
last years before retirement. Meanwhile most of us in the private sector are responsible for our retirements. This needs to be
discussed openly before the MTA keeps asking us to pay more.
37
@Joe
Because of unions and union power, MTA workers have access to the same sort of corruption that enriches the real estate and financial sectors in the city. Transit workers will justifiably fight having to be the first or only ones to have to clean up their act.
Most people in the private sector will have Social Security and Medicare once they are retired; many will have little else.
1
The governor appoints the ceo, the chairman of the board and more board members than anyone else. He controls the MTA, but acts like he doesn't. Instead of working with the mayor and others, he blames everyone but himself. If he wants real reform, let him and his team present a plan instead of harping from the sidelines with unrealistic proposals.
11
Make it free to fix it. All the money and resources funneled into fare collection saved. Take some of those savings and put towards security. More incentive for people to use mass transit. Reduce cars on the streets, reduced emissions, etc.
Fund through taxes.
7
While it's great that our fearless leader in Albany has finally figured out that there are a lot of problems with the MTA, I can't help but wonder: Andrew Cuomo, did it really take you eight long years to figure that out? You appoint the CEO and the Chairman of the board of directors of the MTA, and it took eight years for that information to reach you ? Seems that the MTA is not the only governmental body that needs work!
19
It's extremely disingenuous of this dishonest governor to position himself as an opponent of the MTA. He has more power over it than anyone else and ignored its problems for his first seven years in office. It's poor judgment on the part of the Times to allow him to do this unchallenged.
12
Cuomo says no fare increase. But it is he and his predecessors, going back to Dad, that have made fare increases necessary by refusing to fund the MTA properly, forcing it to borrow money. A large % of the fare is used to repay that debt. Meanwhile floating those bonds produces revenues for the Governor’s Wall St. buddies. Shame on the Governor!
15
“It was purposefully designed so that everyone can point fingers at everybody else, and nobody’s responsible. Why? Because no politician wanted to be responsible. You’re talking about trains and subways and fare increases. And no politician wants to be the one who suggested a fare increase.”
Isn't Cuomo the one pointing the finger at the MTA and blaming them for fare increases and poor service right now? Me thinks Cuomo is too honest by far. He is demonstrating exactly how the Governor finds the MTA useful. Cuomo even spoke his thoughts aloud. I'll be surprised if I'm the first one to call him on it.
10
It would be nice if Governor Cuomo acted like an adult instead of a spoiled brat and cared more about fixing the subway than making snarky comments.
4
The MTA is notorious for its project delays and cost overruns as seen in the Fulton Center construction project. Instead of raising the fare (no effort is required to do so), the complete MTA overhaul, such as privatizing it, is needed, in my opinion. I've had it.
2
The last reliable thing to happen to the MTA, aside from Andy Byford, was the advent of the MetroCard. Unless I am missing something, Gov Cuomo appears to be hobbling Byford, ostensibly his own hire. Confusing.
8
As a subway and bus rider, I have to say that the system humiliates millions of New York riders every day. From putting expensive machines and wasting paper with the S bus routes, investing in technology that's going to be obsolete shortly, to incredibly overcrowded and filthy conditions, wondering where you're going to wind up. to service that ends so that being on a night shift is impossible, to figuring there's a good chance you'll be stuck, I don't think anyone can fault Governor Cuomo for wanting to do something.
10
If the subway ran very well, there would be no case to ask for more money to improve it. If "the wall" was funded months ago, there would be no rallying cry for it nor any distraction generated by a government shutdown today.
Both of these problems seem to originate in New York, but have affected many areas of the country.
2
There needs to be a happy medium between MTA being a welfare entity (creating jobs for sake of creating) and running an efficient operation.
Seems like the pendulum has swung significantly to the former...
5
Let's outsource the system to the Chinese. It will run like clock work, and even help settling the Trade War.
3
Bring back the commuter tax. We had it before. Let's bring it back. Why put this only on the back of NYC residents?
6
The system will never improve without competition.
NYS should study Europe
"Wherever competition was introduced, use of public transport increased," explains Alain Bonnafous. In the UK, passenger traffic per kilometer doubled in just over 20 years. "The UK even passed Germany in terms of trips per capita (26 against 25), l ahead of France (17),
In Germany, regional traffic increased by 70% between 1996, the date of opening to competition, and 2012. Deutsche Bahn itself saw its traffic increase by 48% on these lines, although lost some contracts. The Swedish example is also illuminating "The increase in terms of train-km currently follows a dynamic of about 4% and the demand follows,
http://www.lefigaro.fr/economie/le-scan-eco/le-vrai-du-faux/2018/04/04/29003-20180404ARTFIG00002-ouverture-du-rail-a-la-concurrence-ce-qui-est-vrai-ce-qui-est-faux.php
--
Alain Bonnafous, Professor Emeritus of the University of Lyon researcher at the Laboratory Economy-Planning-Transport and former member of Réseau-Ferré de France's board of directors and vice-president of the National Transportation Council,
=====
@LeClerc
Ridiculous. This puff comment is an excuse for graft on a massive scale. Look at Berlin's transit woes, it's a black hole with taxpayers on the hook for the sale leaseback arrangement where money flowed to Goldman Sachs.
Passenger growth is organic. The UK is a huge counter example to privatisation :the system literally crashed and burned, and fares are the highest in Europe.
Don't fall for the fake arguments.
9
@LeClerc
Yes the French have plenty of experience with "competition" in public infrastructure projects. Like the toll roads where only 10% of the tolls actually go to maintenance now because they were sold off to private companies after built on public money and all debt repaid? Graft. Thanks Sarkozy.
RFF, réseau ferré de France, isn't that the rail infrastructure company that split from the SNCF to allow for competition in Europe? The company that built platforms 4" too narrow for trains to pass through stations, costing tens of millions and months of delays to fix?
Don't listen to charlatans looking to pick your pocket.
2
Cuomo is the genius who closed the Transit Authority for the first time in 150 years for a snowstorm and only 6 inches of snow fell. I hear that his steady stream of other stupid suggestions daily keeps the MTA from attending to its regular business.
The Transit Authority's major problem -- since Dick Ravitch left--has been massive underfunding of its capital program.
Selection by Cuomo and Schwartzman of various MTA leaders is a not too distant second.
5
ultimately Cuomo is in charge of MTA. question: does congestion pricing of cars to subsidize subway sound like socialism to you?
1
The MTA is a stunningly mismanaged organization.
However, the politicians are largely to blame for this mismanagement.
Most of the system we have today was built by private companies that actually wanted to build because they could make money at it. The City put them out of business by refusing to raise the 5 cent fare to cover inflation. Believe it or not, the City saw the subways as a *profit center* when it took them over. Needless to say, they soon began to hemorrhage money and the fare started to climb. And after the construction of the IND, Mayor Hylan's vanity project to punish the private companies, virtually nothing else got built. Instead, the MTA became a feeding trough for politicians, unions, and vendors.
The interesting thing is that European cities manage to do a fine job of maintaining, upgrading, and extending their publicly-owned subways. This is largely a New York problem. The failure of the State to address it points to serious flaws in State government.
23
@Josh Hill
Agree 100%. The MTA is a travesty at the public's expense.
10
@Josh Hill I totally agree, and lets not forget the labor component. Cuomo is so supportive of the unions, including those that work on public projects, that cost control is next to impossible. So he says "no fare increase" but he would never push back on union demands in terms of pay, benefits or work rules. Great NYT article compared cost and quantity of workers needed to run the exact same drilling rig in NYC vs Paris, a great comparison, 2 old cities, high cost of living, worker safety valued, etc.
5
As someone who lives in Toronto, where local transit planning, and I use the word loosely, is done at the whim of provincial and federal politicians, I can sympathize entirely with New Yorkers who are fed up with politicians overriding transit experts for electoral gain. Mr. Byford did much to improve the TTC while here, but he was unwilling or unable to speak truth to power and, as a consequence, needed subway and LRT construction has been set back decades.
4
The pension costs are public and out of control. Many MTA employees can retire at 55. Theres loads of people making six figure pensions at a young age.
When your transportation managers are making the salaries of Wall Street bankers to be retired at 55 it's time to fight the corruption. Or eventually fares will rise to unsustainable levels and nothing will be fixed.
16
@Snake6390 I think we are already at that tipping point. And I can say from having dealt with MTA on small construction projects, the "project managers" making 150k or more equivalent were comically inept. I had to build a subway entrance and elevator as part of a larger building, and they couldn't even say what they want, what code to follow (NYC vs NYS, changed 3-times) and for every meeting, they go to a conference room and sit there waiting, but don't communicate with their building entrance so you can't even get in, and you lose and hour every meeting at least, like its a joke for them. I left every meeting saying "those folks would not last a week in the private sector". I know I was right because many of them were in fact wash-outs from real design and construction firms.
4
The MTA is not only a cesspit of fraud (one of my close friends-in-law is an MTA contractor and has stories about MTA waste, fraud & abuse up the wazoo), it is also the worst-managed transit system in the world. Compare it to any other major city subway system -- MTA construction costs 3-5x the price per subway-mile of more densely populated cities such as London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Its operating costs are bloated because its workers resist all attempts at efficiency.
As with every other big city in America, public sector unions have robbed blind an entity that should be printing money, and does print money in most other parts of the world. The Hong Kong metro system for example has no debt and 50%+ EBITDA margin (that is 2x Google's profit margin in case you were wondering).
The MTA is probably the best case study in America for FDR's maxim that government workers should never unionize. As long as the MTA prioritizes its employees over public service any further investments in the MTA are a waste of money.
22
Read an expose not too long ago which stated that the predominance of on board train staff retire early on disability. Can not figure that one out. Instead of constantly seeking more, should address their use of the funds they already receive from a captive audience.
6
Me Cuomo is acting like Trump. Showing no empathy for the federal workers and in Cuomo case not caring about the millions of transit riders who deserve better conditions. He needs to be replaced with a Democrat who cares.
2
It would seem to be time to add the Staten Island Ferry to a Metro Card fare. This service has been completely subsidized while other New Yorkers pay their share. Raise the Metro card ride and add turnstiles to the Ferry as well.
Real funding must still come from direct allocation from NYS/NYC government with long range planning. Time to run the MTA in New York, not Albany and escape from short term political thinking.
6
the MTA is poorly run, filled with waste, overspending, and fraud. The entire organization needs to be retooled and new leadership in place, asap. Fares need to increase to at least $3.00 to get billions more for improvements.
4
Given its poor management why would you think a rate increase would result in better financial decisions? Only more money to waste and not be accountable for.
9
If you don't like the subway... then WALK to where you want to go. If you want the subway to be improved, then pay an additional fee every few years, when it's raised, and don't complain. It costs money to make improvements and repairs. This is true of running any business, by the way. I like getting "free (or discounted) stuff" too. But things cost money. Personally, I think the subway is a great deal. For a small price, it will take you virtually anywhere you want in the city. I think it's a bargain and I'd be happy to pay a few cents more every few years to allow for more improvements/repairs.
4
Don’t think a rate increase is the main issue here. The issue is their poor financial management. Higher fare equals more to squander.
9
@ABC123
No, it will NOT take you virtually anywhere you want in the city.
This is another statement from the rich (they don't think of themselves as rich, but they are) Manhattanites and people from Brooklyn Heights.
Come visit Queens, where you can't go there from here, except by car. Visit Far Rockaway. It takes us an hour and a half or longer to get to midtown Manhattan. Unless we pay LIRR fares. There is no transportation to central Queens. G-d forbid you have jury duty in LIC.
The fact of the matter is that the MTA is just another layer of incompetent management on top of a poorly run NYC Transit Authority.
Take a look at http://solutionsny.nyc/nycta.html and see what you think about the MTA and Andy Byford's Way Back.
3
Is "performance improvements" a euphemism for changing work rules, or - is it even possible? - salary changes, meaning lower. We learned that average transit workers make 150K, and 2,500 supervisors make 270K. So - what does "performance improvement" actually mean. Are the employees supposed to work harder, and what does that mean? If you're in a token booth, or driving a train, how exactly can you work harder?
13
@DLP
The average worker (in a token booth, operating a train) is making $150,000?
The trouble is that they're not even paying their licensed Professional Engineers that much!
6
Not bad for probably someone with minimum skills and education!
4
@DLP Average transit workers are not making $150K, the TWU wage charts are online for the public to see.
http://www.twulocal100.org/sites/twulocal100.org/files/wage_rates_final.pdf
So a "Station Agent" is making $61,932 before overtime and night differential pay.
If you want to rail against anyone, and I say this as a union member and advocate myself, it would be against the LIRR union, which as seen by the disability pension scandal of a few years ago, is endemic with corruption. Unions like that make all unions look bad.
5
Station a transit cop at every subway entrance to stop fare beating. Revenue problem solved, and riders will appreciate the additional security.
15
If anybody except Cuomo were NY Governor they would be a national figure and leading presidential candidate. Enough said.
2
I read these articles out of professional interest having worked at London Transport for many years. We used to feel very sorry for ourselves but although there are still threats our system is transformed over what it was in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and is vastly improved. What worries me on your behalf though is that no matter how bad it gets you have to have a basis to be able to spring back from, before you fall too much into the quicksand and can’t escape. Fortunately we never fell that far. But reading these articles about the MTA I fear you may have. Cuomo May have good points but his management, conducting his criticism through the media will not help. He needs to be having these conversations with Mr Byford ( who by the way is as good as everyone thinks he is) in private and face to face to make a plan and stick with it.
24
@Michael Absolutely. Mr. Byford is barely mentioned in these articles, and he is running the subway!!
8
Yup, just rob the drivers, the vast majority of whom are not NYC residents....does anyone actually think the money taken via congestion taxation will actually make any difference...or will it end up in the center of the Earth like the rest of the money spent ? I pay over $200 per month for bridge and highway tolls, the vast majority of which goes to the MTA, if the potholes and 1930 era roads I use are any indication.
11
As a public transit activist in Toronto, I was flabbergasted by the opening sentence of this article - which categorically says that fare increases are necessary to improve service. Where is the proof of this very politically loaded statement? Indeed, the entire discourse of this article accepts the 'necessary' trade-off between fare increases and service. This is not substantiated, and is even undermined by the obvious facts of this article, showing the meager amounts raised by fare increases, in comparison to the real funding that can only come by government funding which, in turn, must come from taxes.
Most progressive public transit activists and advocates around the world know that fares should not be the basic component of funding and that, to the contrary, public transit must be funded by massive so-called 'subsidies' by governments. What's needed are fare decreases, along with major increases in progressive taxes on the wealthy and behaviours that encourage environmentally problematic outcomes. Congestion taxes are a start, for sure. Public transit, should be free of fares, just like public library services and - at least in most countries - medical care.
37
The regular New Yorkers like me who aren't investment bankers are struggling to get by. We can't afford the existing subway fare, let alone an increase. I agree with the governor. The MTA needs to reorganize itself and fix its finances, or else dissolve and be reincorporated in a new governance structure. The constant fare hikes are ridiculous and point to systemic mismanagement.
11
@Casey Penk
MTA fares are ridiculously low for some services. The mismanagement flows directly from uninformed voters like this to opportunistic politicians like Cuomo, and then you get chronic underinvestment.
In other words, you get what you pay for, and you deserve what you vote for.
11
@Andy Right. And how did Cuomo's push for the hugely expensive Q train extension of 3 stops help the situation?
5
@DLP
Deflection isn't a legitimate rhetorical technique. Just how is your comment a counter argument to "opportunistic politicians like Cuomo"?
2
I've got an idea: just stop paying everybody connected with the MTA: the six figure bureaucrats, the conductors, the motormen, the maintenance workers, and the those who work in the token booths (if they haven't already been replaced by machines).
It's "Empty-suit Andy's" way, or the highway. Sound familiar?
5
@george eliot "Empty-suit Andy's"?? Andy Byford is the best thing that has happened to New York in years
3
@Tim M
I think he is referring to Andrew Cuomo not Andy Byford
4
@Owat Agoosiam Oh you are probably right. Outrage rescinded haha
1
Yeah, it’s time to pile onto the MTA
Just how did you run this system when it cost 15 cents for a token? Probably did not have to spend so much on capital improvements, as system still wasn’t that old. But you overpay for that work now. And you did not spend billions for overblown station designer/ memorials. But something is seriously wrong when you can’t make ends meet w/ the the system running at capacity Like what happens to that spare change inevitably left on all those “expired” Metro Cards?. And it’s telling when little Maintenance things stop getting done like multiple passengers train information screens out at GC & escalators out of service for days on end. The entire system seems out of wack and it is state politics that enabled this to happen and state politics that lack the will to start a fix -and the guy in charge would rather play games than really commit to knuckle under. This system is broken but you can’t just foolishly spend your way to a solution. Honestly and transparency would be a good place to start. But good luck in getting any where on that front w/ the occupants in Albany and their leader who can’t allow a Moreland Commission to do its job.
12
Here's an idea... go ahead and implement the proposed fare increase. Put that extra revenue into a honeypot. Assign a team responsibility over a specific station and/or subway line. Every week, award the honeypot to the team that provides the best service, as measured by improved reliability, improved maintenance, lower operating expenses, lower mechanical/system failures, cleaner stations and improved rider satisfaction. Teams should be empowered to discipline/dismiss underperforming employees. If the fare increase results in, say, an increase of $0.25 per rider per day times 6 million riders, this equals $10.5 million per week to be awarded to the winning team, which would be split XX ways. It's like hitting the lottery. It goes without saying that such a system would provide a strong incentive for MTA employees to increase productivity, improve customer service and lower operating costs.
3
@Ed This assumes that your metric is the best way to measure competence. What happens to someone who runs a badly maintained line but keeps it from falling apart?
1
Well, someone has to pay for the generous increases the transit worker’s union members (and Gov. Cuomo supporters) were given by the Governour. Riders already pay a higher percentage of the operating costs as compared to other US systems. Oh, and the buses are still terrible.
7
Another story about the subway and its finances and no mention of Federal funding. You know, the sort of largess Newt Gingrich would secure for his Georgia congressional district all those years. Not to mention the billions Tip O'Neill unapologetically won for his beloved Boston and the Big Dig. The Mayor, the Governor and the MTA have gotten their well deserved licks many times over. Can we finally direct our wrath onto our congressional delegation, at the fore of which is our own Senator Schumer as no less than minority leader, currently negotiating tough with the President not over funding for the MTA or even the Hudson River tunnel, but for Democrat cause celebre, DACA.
6
There's a catch-22 with the MTA: if ridership increases, as it did up until recently when lousy service drove riders away, the MTA will blame the fact of too many people taxing the system -- which is what it was saying not long ago.
There's no winning with the MTA. What other entity gets to blame an increase in paying customers for its inability to deliver reliable service?
10
Congestion pricing for sure on out of State delivery trucks who base themselves just out of the City clearly intending to do business here without paying any tax to the City. If businesses want access to the number one city in America they should pay us something for our roads and system.
5
@Letter G The prices of real estate in NYC make it so that warehouse or production is either Queens or Jersey. You just don't have space....
I am ok with some sort of congestion pricing as long as it is only applied to personal vehicles and not delivery trucks and commercial transport. This is their business and using public transportation is not an alternative for them. This being said, can the MTA take an increase in travelers? I am doubtful.
4
This is a tough problem facing all urban transit. The lack of investment in this critical infrastructure, coupled with lack of responsible social policies have driven the issue of public transit to the breaking point. The reliability is gone. Safety is eroding. Rather than playing the blame game, all leaders, including business leaders, need to come together to solve the urgent issues and lay the foundation for a future that acknowledges public transit will be the key to economic development and less pollution/congestion. Money should come from a variety of sources and not just the knee-jerk fare increases. Transit riders are doing everyone a favor. They should not be penalized repeatedly. Yet, some fare increases over time will be necessary. As will private investment from employers. As will long overdue federal funding. The rest of the world has much better public transit. I think we can figure this out.
7
Other things being equal, can we assume that the current management is effective and efficient? That there is no abuse, incompetence, even fraud? Let's trust there is outside supervision and regulation to know for certain that MTA's job is beyond reproach, so to give Cuomo's assessment the benefit of the doubt. Obviously, those of us using the subway and bus system in NYC do need a reliable and on-time service, as it redounds in everybody's benefit. Besides, don't we deserve a public transportation mechanism to make our lives more enjoyable, and show up at work (or whatever) with a smile in our face...instead of crying in despair?
2
what about cutting board members’ and the management’s wages and make their wages performance dependent.
12
How much $$ is NYC giving to Amazon in the form of tax breaks for their new headquarters in Queens? Maybe Amazon could help out our subway system with some of their billions in profits. Large corporations have financed improvement in public works before.
28
Riders cannot afford a fare increase. Stop the fare beaters. Unmonitored turnstiles encourage fare beaters. Clean up the subways and you will increase ridership. The homeless live in subway stations and on the trains. Sometimes riders have to abandon a whole train car and squeeze into an adjoining car to avoid the stench and health risk. In some stations groups of men menace people trying to enter the platform. This does not happen in Europe where riders do not have to ride in filth and watch the rats scamper around. In many European cities garbage in placed in large steel bins that starve rats, not large plastic curbside bags.
16
Makes one wish that Cynthia Nixon was still getting media coverage. At least she gave Cuomo some scare regarding his re-election and he said the right things. Now that he is safely ensconced in his last term, he is as ineffectual as his previous two terms. UGH.
5
I can vouch for fare evasion becoming a serious problem.
I've been riding the subway almost every day for 20 years now and have never seen it as bad as it is now.
That said, if Cuomo wants to put his money where his mouth is, he should make a deal with the MTA: A commuter tax with all the proceeds going to the MTA, BUT if service doesn't improve by 25% within three years, that goes away.
Also, I'll say again that it's utterly ridiculous that renovation projects such as elevator replacements and the L tunnel project that the MTA wants total closures for take over a year.
7
I think some perspective is important. $130 a month for unlimited transportation via bus or train to the vast majority of the city for 24 hours (which is provided to riders through heavy subsidies) is an incredible bargain and a convenience unknown to most of the world. Outside of New York City, average workers in the US spend hundreds of dollars a month in commuting costs (car loans, insurance, gas, maintenance etc.).
The MTA deserves a lot of the criticism for faulty operations and bloated payroll but the cost of ridership shouldn't be viewed as unfair. On the contrary it is probably the best bargain in the city!
12
@Chris Matthew
The subway doesn't seem like such a bargain to riders when fares increase every other year and service gets worse in lockstep.
People who own a private car (or two) are fully responsible for their own expenses, as they should be.
But people who rely on public transportation deserve to be generously subsidized.
2
1. The MTA needs to declare bankruptcy to get out from under the insane pensions with which it burdens riders and taxpayers.
2. It needs to tear up all its union contracts.
3. It needs to emerge from bankruptcy via legislation exempting it from unions.
4. It needs to limit overtime to five hours per week, at no more than time-and-a-half.
5. It needs to require employees to contribute a "prevailing percentage" of wages to health plans.
6. It needs to be required to film all repair operations costing more than $20,000, and submit these videos to an independent citizens panel for review, to eliminate the "one guy working while seven guys stand around" culture.
37
@Charles
The problems are not caused by the workers. The problems are caused by corrupt management.
4
@Charles
Also eliminate the incentives for politicians to agree to those sweetheart union contracts in the first place.
1
@Charles Hayman
Reposted from another comment:
A year or two ago, I saw three MTA workers near a ladder sitting against a wall talking. I had a while to wait for the next train and I am outgoing, so I struck up a conversation and learned a little about the MTA. It turns out that they were changing light bulbs. Apparently, it takes three MTA workers to change a light bulb, one to actually change the bulbs, one to hold the ladder and one to "supervise." I can see the safety necessity of two workers, but three?
Anyway, my trip was brief, so I was back in the station about 50 minutes later. The station had a center platform with the trains going both ways. So I arrived back to the same platform and saw the same workers sitting next to the same wall and still talking. I said, with all sincerity, "that's really nice that the MTA gives you guys such long breaks." One of the workers replied, "No that was my break earlier, now is the super's break. If one of us is not working, none of us can work." They seemed proud that they were taking advantage of the system. Unfortunately, the "system" they are taking advantage of is not some billionaire owner. Rather, it is you and I who pay taxes and depend on the subway to get to work and put bread on our own tables.
2
Notice how people go nuts when the government wants to raise taxes or impose fees?
I say let the government open some government owned and run gambling casinos where the government keeps all the profit. The effect is that the suckers who frequent these places will just hand their money over with nary a whimper. Put slot machines right next to the MetroCard machines and all over the City.
Furthermore, pot is on the way to being legalized. Let the government open up pot stores to sell it and keep the profits to spend as the government sees fit, like on the subways. In New Hampshire they sell liquor in state run liquor stores. The government there cleans up. Why can't we do that with pot?
As far as regulating pot goes, keep it simple, whatever restrictions apply to booze should be applied to pot. You have to be 21 to buy it and use it, no driving under the influence, no using on the open streets or parks, etc.
7
Cool, but maybe a second entry system for the last car with locked door to other cars accept in case of emergency. That last car could have a substantial premium price to pay for ash trays, cans of beer, cleaners and security. At the other end a separate entry system for three cars only allowing women. Along with slots we could put in a few highly taxed old school Times Square establishments next to stations along with sports betting parlours. Ahhh, the sweet aroma of a few fat stogies wafting down the Avenue.
1
He should humiliate it. The MTA is quite literally a criminal enterprise. Remember the double books they kept? I know people who work there. They pull their trucks into bridges at night, set up cones around them, and sleep. They break subway and Metro North cars on purpose. And they steal money from every working human being in a 3-state radius. Humiliate away!
14
@Mike. The problem for Cuomo is the old "when sitting in a glass house..". For the last eight years as Governor, he appointed both the CEO and the chair of the board of directors of the MTA, and he is only hearing about these problems now?
As for changes with work rules and union contracts, don't hold your breath: the unions involved are among his largest and longstanding supporters and donors.
2
@Mike -- fact check, there wasn't really "two sets of books."
State Comptroller Alan Hevesi made that snarky one-liner that people remember, but it wasn't true.
https://www.wnyc.org/story/86655-the-ghost-of-the-mtas-two-sets-of-books/
And then (quoting the wikipedia):
In February 2007, Hevesi was sentenced to a $5,000 fine and permanently banned from holding elective office again; he received no jail time and no probation. Hevesi later pleaded guilty to corruption charges surrounding a "pay to play" scheme regarding the New York State Pension Fund; on April 15, 2011, he was sentenced to one to four years in prison.
2
Governor Cuomo is leveraging the State of New York into record territory - he's borrowing away our children's future.
NY State funded debt is at a record $63.7 billion and the Governor has projected 4 more years of deficit spending, taking the debt to $71.8 billion.
The Mercatus Center found the State of New York has a record $422.44 billion of unfunded pension liability.
The State ranks 41st out of 50 states for fiscal health - Governor Cuomo is what's ailing us...he's a spendthrift and has no conception of what it means to balance a budget.
He's teeing up his run for President - he's so disingenuous it's pathetic.
4
One of the many, many reason I didn't vote for the grifter. His father was little better. Glad to see our Democratic governor is pulling out his classic Republican handbook...
4
I just am so surprised that a) no journalist has tried to do an analytical journalistic research on Governor Cuomo's management style while he was in the Clinton Administration. Why such a free pass was given to him?, and b) why no one is standing up to the rights of New York City which pays an overwhelming amount of taxes to keep New York State afloat but has almost no say on M.T.A. Why do we need the votes of NY State reps. and sens. who live over 200 miles away and don't even visit NYC? Why don't we have more say in the running of our city?
13
Please NYT? I still don't know who is on the board of the MTA!
Are these appointees QUALIFIED to run a transportation agency? Can we get their bios please and if they are simply incompetent but loyal party members,,,get rid of them. Ask them publicly to resign? Shame them!
We should do the same with the Port Authority. the absence of quality running these agencies makes trains and airports embarrassing to a supposedly world class city.
Political leader fighting over control but not substance is not the solution to all our tax money going down the drain every year.
13
@raytekos. Good point! As far as I can tell, the key qualifications for someone to get appointed to the MTA board is being a buddy/large donor to the appointing politician; occasional exceptions to that rule exist, but are rare. Knowledge of effectively running large organizations or public transit is, apparently, not required, but a happy coincidence. I use the outcome of that patronage system very frequently, if it runs, that is.
2
@raytekos Here's the MTA board http://web.mta.info/mta/leadership/board.htm
And here's the PA board - https://corpinfo.panynj.gov/pages/board-of-commissioners/ led by https://corpinfo.panynj.gov/pages/pa-leadership/
It's amazing that there is no reliable and commonly-accepted system for assessing the performance level of these huge monopolistic bureaucracies. The politicians and administrators throw in the odd slogan about "performance metrics" precisely because there is no such evaluation available within their locked-up world, and they -- on both sides of the political divide -- intend to keep it that way. Otherwise, their own incompetence would be revealed all too clearly. And the NY Times sits around wringing its hands in its all-too-familiar style: where was this "voice of the people" during all those decades when the system was zooming downhill? Answer: practicing how to wring its hands. God forbid there should be any real change -- the NYC elite has ended up sticking its citizens with a ghastly transit system. Ours in Boston is bad enough, but at least, for example, disabled people have a fighting chance to be able to use it. But NYC? Forget it!
3
They don't need higher fares. They need to eliminate the corruption that pervades the MTA. Then they will find they have plenty of money.
16
Cuomo lost me long ago when he twice vetoed double transfers, which would have eliminated a brutally unfair add-insult-to-injury surcharge on arbitrarily targeted riders who are being charged double because yhey are being poorly served. "One City, One Fare?" Tell us about it, Andy
When it comes to public transportation, Cuomo has no idea what fair means.
4
Has anyone considered -- rather than gouging riders or taxpayers -- asking concessions from the politically connected unions?
13
The agency expects to have a deficit of nearly $1 billion by 2022. Why? Because of unbelievable mismanagement of the transit authority and the diversion of funds from the MTA to line the pockets of the massively corrupt government that has allowed the subway system to brink of collapse with old subway cars and rail systems in need of constant maintenance and a operations system decades out of date. And the state continues to let it degrade.
10
A year or two ago, I saw three MTA workers near a ladder sitting against a wall talking. I had a while to wait for the next train and I am outgoing, so I struck up a conversation and learned a little about the MTA. It turns out that they were changing light bulbs. Apparently, it takes three MTA workers to change a light bulb, one to actually change the bulbs, one to hold the ladder and one to "supervise." I can see the safety necessity of two workers, but three?
Anyway, my trip was brief, so I was back in the station about 50 minutes later. The station had a center platform with the trains going both ways. So I arrived back to the same platform and saw the same workers sitting next to the same wall and still talking. I said, with all sincerity, "that's really nice that the MTA gives you guys such long breaks." One of the workers replied, "No that was my break earlier, now is the super's break. If one of us is not working, none of us can work." They seemed proud that they were taking advantage of the system. Unfortunately, the "system" they are taking advantage of is not some billionaire owner. Rather, it is you and I who pay taxes and depend on the subway to get to work and put bread on our own tables.
96
@Tifany
Ah, unions. Giving undue job security to fungible unmotivated workers since the dawn of the bleeding-heart era!
9
@Tifany That sounds a lot like the old joke about the city workers planting trees in Central Park. " A passer-by sees two guys in Central Park. One watches while the other dogs a hole. A little while later, the passer-by returns, and sees the other worker filling the hole the first one dug. Curious, he walks up to them and asks what they are doing? One worker answers: Oh, we're planting trees, but the guy who puts in the tree is out sick today. "
9
New York is and will always be an expensive city. Landlords continue to follow the market and raise rent, why shouldn’t the MTA? For the millions of white collar workers who flood the city every day, the $0.50 is affordable and would be welcomed if there were marked improvements to service.
The biggest challenge is for the lower income workers who are the lifeblood of the city and who need the extra funds to keep their household running. Seems like they have a program “Fair Fares” to tackle just this. Curious why this is not a part of the conversation. Could this program be expanded beyond the 12k max income limit?
7
@David Packles
Going a bit off topic, Tokyo is also an expensive city with greedy landlords, yet in the 20 years I've been visiting there the base subway fare has remained 160 yen (about $1.50 or so). And the subways are spotless and on-time. Yes, the heart of rush hour is worse than ours, but outside that time, the trains are less crowded than NYCs. Outsource our subway system to the Tokyo Metro operators!
4
Collaboration?...Cooperation?...Cuomo?...please.
Three men in a room has morphed into a French farce of unbounded deference to maintain 'loyalty'.
The Amazon HQ had the fix in from the start but what of future growth? What company in their wildest optimism would relocate to NYC? Cost of living and the charms of being stuck in a rail car for 30 minutes?
With rate of interest for government bonds at today's price? In fifty years ,with inflation, it will seem like found money.
But in the long run we'll all be dead!
2
I may be misremembering things because I was a child, but didn’t we go more than two years without fare hikes in the 1990s?
What happened between then and now that made it necessary for the MTA to shake-down its ridership every two years in exchange for increasingly awful service? I am one of many New Yorkers who can’t afford to take a cab or an Uber everywhere and is thus hostage to the MTA.
The only mercy in this is that soon I’ll be unable to take the subway, too, so at least I won’t have to deal with the lack of service...
3
Congestion pricing is just another tax increase. It will not stop people from coming to Manhattan when they have to, they will simply pay the tax. Even worse, whatever it collects will not be enough. It's NEVER enough! If the MTA had a right to print money, it would still be broke. It is a huge, poorly managed money pit. Everything they do is inefficient. They spend way too much money on everything. The best solution is to break it up so local leaders are responsible. While you're at it, how about opening up your books to public scrutiny?
29
@Richard. Congestion pricing is not just a way to get more money to improve public transportation. We also need a way to limit the amount of traffic and congestion in Manhattan. Congestion pricing happens to be approach that has worked in a number of big, densely populated cities all over the world. That being said, I am in favor of no or a low congestion charge for vehicles with three or more occupants, and, of course, no congestion charge for people with disabilities who need their car to get around.
2
It has to be a multi-pronged approach--congestion pricing, fare enforcement, fewer giveaways to corporations like Amazon and, above all, reductions in costs associated with maintenance and new construction.
6
The MTA needs more revenue. That doesn't automatically mean higher fares. If the average worker in New York rides twice a day, to and from work, they already spend $110 a month on subway fares.
If you do anything on the weekends, that's more. If you have children who use buses or subways other than school hours, that's more.
Median salaries in Brooklyn are about $45,000 a year, less in the Bronx. Median rent in Manhattan is now up to $3100 a month.
Simply put, the average New Yorker can't afford to pay more than they already are. But the average corporation with 100 employees or more can afford to pay more.
The subway is the life's blood of commercial activity in New York. Without it, the city dies. It's time politicians realize this and institute a dedicated tax on area institutions specifically for public transportation.
Corporations just got an enormous windfall tax cut from the feds. Let them apply some of that money to our subways instead of their next derivative or other exotic Wall Street plumb.
45
It's worth remembering that most of the NYC subways are a remnant of early hodge-podge private construction, that consolidated into the Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT, later BMT) and Interboro Rapid Transit (IRT). The city built some further lines that were leased to these two companies; a strange arrangement. In 1932 the city built the Independent line (IND) and operated it directly.
By 1940 the private lines were failing and he city took them over.
The historian Caro described what happened: Robert Moses spent all the capital to turn NYC into a city for automobiles, starving the subways. "When Robert Moses came to power in New York in 1934, the city’s mass transportation system was probably the best in the world. When he left power in 1968 it was quite possibly the worst."
In 1968 NYC entered financial crisis, the subway systems started to fall apart and many lines were shut. At the height of the transit crisis in 1983, on-time performance dropped below 50%. Hundreds of trains never made it to their destination and in 1981, 325 train runs were abandoned on a typical day.Subway cars caught fire 2,500 times a year.
An 18 B$ transit fix started in 1980, sound familiar? Much was done but its plan was never completed.
Giuliani cut 400 M$ from the subway in 1994, starting the new cycle of the city and state taking money from the subways ... and here we are now.
Expecting great improvements with no investment ... do pigs have wings?
73
@Lee Harrison Excellent analysis. Robert Caro's book on Moses is great. I came to NYC in early 70's. Subways were a scary joke. Now, still horrible - but the cars look better. Mismanagement and tax money going upstate adds to the horror. I disapprove of tactics of both Governor and Mayor. No one is really helping this situation; thus a great city dies.
2
@Lee Harrison yeah but ,it’s all the fault of those greedy motormen and the guys who change light bulbs.
1
Increased fares and congestive pricing....Repub policy-in-a-box. Regressive taxes, wealthy privileges untouched. So much for Dems now controlling the state. Maybe they didn’t get that Davos letter....the one about wealth inequality and consequences. So many possible progressive funding options.
And if mismanagement is a problem- why just complain- can’t the state change the ownership structure....more articles, options on this area needed.
We distance readers are interested because what WA state has done, and NY city may do- may seem an easy solution here.
3
For several years after 1984, the subway system was on an upward trajectory. Prior to that, the M.T.A. had descended into such a state of disrepair that politicians were forced to invest in the first of Richard Ravitch’s capital plans. Without that funding, the trains and buses were headed for total breakdown. By 2004, with subways and buses much improved, Governor George Pataki believed that state monies weren’t really needed as much, so he pledged only about 70 percent of the capital improvement funding the agency had requested for its next five-year capital plan. They could just whistle for the rest, or borrow with back-breaking long-term debt. The payback on that debt is a contributing factor to the killing of the subways yet again.
29
@Charles -- your history complements mine, two posts above. The fact of the matter is that city and state politicians always take money from the subways any time their condition is anything better than intolerable.
Cuomo took 5 M$ a few years ago to subsidize a ski resort in the Adirondacks. While 5M$ isn't all that much the optics were a brutal demonstration of the fact that the subways have been the Governor's piggy bank for anything and anybody he cared about more.
And then on top of that, we've had the insanity of the Oculus -- 4 B$ into one station, and transit money being spent to build a shopping mall.
The 2nd Ave subway "makes sense," and indeed has looked like a necessity since the elevated line along the route was torn down in 1942. But construction costs have been insane, even by the standards of Tokyo, the most expensive city to build anything in the world.
New York City is in crisis over construction costs for public works; the city will die unless the transit system can be made functional, at a reasonable cost.
And there are major problems that are unaddressed, simply because nobody can see the money needed to do them.
Right at the top is the 7 line; it's falling apart and needs to be replaced by an underground ... but nobody even talks about it.
11
@Lee Harrison Yes. I am still at a loss for words about that $4 billion dollar monument to waste of our money otherwise known as the Occulus. A cool billion dollars would have bought a more functional structure, and just think of the train cars and signal upgrades the remaining three billion could have bought!
4
@Lee Harrison
You are indeed correct. The construction costs compounded by the borrowing costs are back breaking. The IND is the closest to a modern system that we have and it was designed in the 1920s. It will never be replicated with new construction.
1
The MTA is first and foremost a mass transit system. But, if one looks below the surface, it’s also a scheme to take money from taxpayers and fare payers to fund union pay, union benefits, union pensions, and low productivity union work rules. While there is no way around it, the problems stem from the monopoly on mass transit in NY owned by the MTA. Get used to this situation folks, open your wallet, and pay up. There is no way out.
43
Where has Gov. Cuomo been all of his years in office re: the MTA subway system? Between him and useless Mayor DeBlasio whom should be on the same page - after all both are of the same party, our subway system has fallen into a pit of despair that seem impossible to climb out of. Both these Pols have six representatives on the board and the Gov hired Byford, the subway’s leader. Do our Pols sit down with their board picks before nominating them to the position? In the case of highly regarded Andy Byford, the rare veteran of leading multiple big transit systems, didn't Gov Cuomo meet with him to discuss the most crital challenges of the NYC subway system and it's culture before hand? My thoughts here is Gov Cuomo is politicking and making noises that make headlines in this paper and who's image is to look tough on issues pertaining to the MTA. Seriously, it's all welcomed but it's years late in the making and New Yorkers see right through the Gov's bluster and who is eyeballing the crowded field announcing their 2020 presidential aspirations. Give Blyford the mandate and tools to carve out the excesses and fat from the system. Give Blyford the ability to change his worker's rules under the contract - not their pay so that there is reasonable pay not egregious pay for working certain shifts - much of which drives the costs upwards when off hour - weekend construction and maintenance work is performed. Reduce upper layers of MTA management!
26
@realist
Makes one wish that Cynthia Nixon was still getting media coverage. At least when she gave Cuomo some scare, he said the right things. Now safely ensconced in his last term, he is as ineffectual as his previous two terms. UGH.
2
@Amelia B.
Cynthia Nixon ran a much more effective campaign than most as someone who is new to politics. She did not back down at the many things that could have been a liability for most non-political types and she paved the way for others down the road. She brought pressing issues to the fore in a professional way. Cuomo is all bluster and Govern to manage his media coverage. He is ineffective with managing his NYC relationships with our Mayor and he seems to think that he should run for President, ugh.
2
I found it very interesting that there are people who support the fare increase considering the condition and the service of the MTA. It's hard to understand how people could have been so patient while riding on the no-data-connection with unreliable free-wifi, smelly, dim, far-less-from-21century subway system. I've been in New York for just a couple of years now and it amases me everyday! It's sad to see this wonderful city has to endure this poor quality subway system.
5
God forbid you can’t use Instagram while on the subway. I think getting it to actually move reliability should be a bigger priority.
10
“New York City’s subway and bus system needs higher fares to shore up its finances and to make much-needed improvements in service.”
The other option is that they could find the money by not being the single least efficient rail agency in terms of $/km in the entire world. Why doesn’t the author even contemplate that as a possibility?
31
The question that's rarely asked, and never answered is "How was it possible that we could build this amazing system 115 years ago, and now we can't even maintain it, let alone build more?" It seems that the simplest answer is "Mismanagement."
94
@PW -- Robert Moses and a series of Mayors and Governors who systematically destroyed the subways, and spent the money on grandiosities like the Oculus.
15
@PW Part of the answer is that "we" didn't build them -- at least not the IRT (123456) and BMT (NQRW) lines which were built by private companies. I am far from a pro-business anti-government conservative, but there is no doubt that against the background of NYC's chronic rampant corruption, how "we" managed to build the subway lines in NYC 115 yrs ago was that "we" didn't.
6
@PW
The answer is very simple -- the subways were built and run by *private* companies. They *wanted* to build and expand because they *made money* at it. And then the City squeezed them out of existence by refusing to raise the 5 cent fare to account for inflation.
Since the City and then the State took over, the operation has grown incredibly inefficient and corrupt at all levels, from the governor down to the token clerk. It's become a feeding trough.
However, European cities have excellent government-run transit. There's no reason we couldn't do the same if the politicians wanted it.
7
Congestion pricing will just be a tax on low income and middle class drivers. The wealthy won't notice. Those who can't afford it will not have any other options as the transit system needs serious reform. Income or sales taxes are the way to improve it. Once you have options for commuters, then you can start Congestion pricing. It would be best not to rely on revenue from a tax whose purpose is to reduce behavior. If it is successfull, there will be less drivers paying. These projections are never what they are suppose to be. Increased costs for transportation means decreased consumer spending. There is no free lunch.
5
Congestion pricing also reduces traffic in NYC, especially Manhattan. This should have been implemented when Bloomberg was mayor. The worse perpetrators of congestion are those from the outer boroughs driving into Manhattan and parking on the streets. The city needs to implement resident parking permits like other cities, which would generate revenue for the upkeep of the subway.
16
@John. You probably live in Manhattan or very close to it. @Steve is 100% correct on congestion pricing; it is a tax on poor and working class out of borough commuters who have poor or no mass transit options.
The Manhattan rich like Bloomberg will welcome less traffic on our dime. Unless congestion pricing is tied to guaranteed vastly improved transit options for two-fare zones, it should be opposed.
7
@Steve -- the fundamental issue is why are so many people commuting into Manhattan, and at what cost? Why haven't some of those jobs moved out, due to the very high costs?
There isn't a single answer to this, but a big part of it is that the developers need Manhattan density to keep going up -- it's the Ponzi scheme that makes them money ... until it stops.
The developers own City Hall, don't kid yourself. So everybody is taxed to make transit in-and-out of Manhattan subsidized below real cost, so ever more people can crowd Manhattan ... and developers keep the Ponzi scheme going.
You say "congestion pricing will just be a tax on low income and middle class drivers." Wrong. Low income citizens don't own cars in NYC, and sure cannot afford to commute with them daily. The income that even begins to make that feasible is not really "middle class" any place but around the city.
Manhattan is choking on cars, and is headed to unlivable. The problem is being "relieved" already by people voting with their feet and their wallets -- leaving to find a better and more affordable lifestyle; talent and jobs are going elsewhere. Developers and the Mayor are desperate to keep packing ever more people in, but the costs of doing that have gone crazy ... and they are running out of suckers to fleece.
4
Automatic increases is not a strategy for improving the MTA’s service. It is a strategy to bring in more money without having to operate more efficiently. The incentive is removed.
I agree with Cuomo and Schwartz the MTA has to step up and demonstrate their commitment and results in overhauling the agency. Fare hikes have failed to do anything other than sustain unsustainable agency policies and transit system. The status quo is failure.
Don’t be fooled about congestion pricing. It is no different than automatic increases. Where is the incentive to improve? Plus it has the added impact to force people to abandon their cars for a broken transit system, straining it more and causing more chaos.
A good example: The LIRR announces trains are “expected to arrive” at a station at an approximate time. The schedule is not a reality; it is a possibility. Maybe the commuter will be lucky, maybe not. But there is no incentive for the LIRR to be on time. They are, in fact, admitting the train will likely not be on time.
4
The MTA is bloated and they only do things the way they've done in the past. They are an immovable object. The fact that Cuomo is trying to prod them into improvements is a welcome change. From top to bottom, and through to the contractors they hire there is a serious lack of cost control, innovation, and fairness to the riders who pay for all of this. NO to fare increases. Do people know what it's like to sit on a train for a half hour between stations for no reason, totally trapped, and then the train pulls in and a bunch of workers who make 100s of thousands of dollars are standing around watching two people fix something? When the MTA went on strike a number of years ago, we walked to work to support their labor union. And the way they've repaid us is with a complete disaster. Talking to the workers, they live in a bubble and our anger barely breaks through the haze of high pay and low quality effort that currently goes into their day on the job. Go for it Cuomo.
60
@Matt R umm.. they’re standing around doing nothing because they’re waiting for the train to pass. The train stopped so they could get out of the way. True you should have received an explanation.
That strike was stupid but you didn’t walk in solidarity. You walked because you had no choice.
1
I'd gladly pay a higher fare if the MTA opens their books and proves to us that our fare money is being spent wisely. Of course, the MTA will never do that because they don't want us to see the waste and bloat (or worse) that's taking place in the MTA.
114
There should be more creative thinking about financing projects like this one. California is an expert at getting someone else to pay for needed capital improvements. Copy their methods and charge businesses and those living in other states rather than increasing fares.
1
I don't see the fairness in raising the cost of a subway ride if they're not going to do something about the larger problems of the system.
Having had a friend who relatively recently worked at MTA Capital Construction, and having heard their horror stories of routine incompetence (alleged "senior estimators" chiding another colleague for using advanced formulas in an Excel spreadsheet, accusing them of not knowing how to use the program, when, in fact, they knew how to use it better; routine personal harassment of women by neanderthal bosses who do perhaps one thing well, but everything else badly, and who are totally unqualified to manage a diverse staff assembled from multiple vendors, with only extraordinarily convoluted ways available for reporting misconduct and abuse), etc.
There is surely gross incompetence, fraud, waste, and abuse in every aspect of this system - and no will to do anything about it, except that of asking the consumer to pay more to compensate for it.
The structure of the MTA needs to be examined with a high powered microscope, and every inefficiency identified and rooted out, as best as can be.
95
make the mta free to riders and add a condo assessment and a flip tax on properties above $5 million
81
@true patriot A big +1 on an extra tax for high price residential property at time of sale. I would have it start on the amount exceeding 2 million dollars, and increase it progressively step wise. All revenue to go to public transportation. This kind of tax would also address a problem I see with De Blasio's income-based millionaires' tax that only covers (very high) incomes, but leaves significant wealth, such as high price real estate, untouched.
4
Dedicated funds out of state and city coffers and a free entrance to all is too out of the box? Too impractical? Not even worthy of discussion? Where is the true leader to bring this solution staring us in the face to the fore? Corey Johnson, how about it?!
What realistic options are there to address what appears to be tremendous bloat in MTA’s spending? Who is going to take that on and weed it out? Until that happens, it seems hopeless, regardless of who is at the helm....
8
@Julie Boesky While there is certainly some level of bloat, it should be noted that nearly a fifth of the budget goes to paying debt service - the result of decades of bonding out previous capital programs. If one fifth of ones household budget were tied up in debt payments, they too, would have fiscal difficulties.
14
"The uncertainty over the fare increase highlights the growing dysfunction at the authority, which has increasingly been subject to the whims of Mr. Cuomo and his allies."
Whims being the key word here. Cuomo is demonstrating the governing style of a Louis XIV, not the likes of an FDR or Teddy Roosevelt, former NY'ers who went on to be great presidents (unlike our current occupant in the White House).
Cuomo has been in government for decades and governor for the past eight years. Where was during that time in pushing for reform at the MTA?
Cuomo's no-hold barred approach to the MTA is focused on everything except the two most dysfunctional areas that cost billions in waste and inefficiencies - labor and procurement.
People bemoan the election of DJT - yet we here in blue New York State overwhelmingly re-elected Cuomo. We're getting what we deserve.
19
@Common Sense Governor Cuomo should look at history for a warning about what happened to one of the later Louis; I believe it was the XVIth. Didn't end well for that Louis.
1
So, the article says the governor wants “change” but I couldn’t figure out what change exactly is wanted! What does everybody want changed???? Is the authority corrupt? What specifically needs to change?
I don’t think simply “changing” whatever it is is enough either way. Fairs need to increase somewhat. If one considers the rent in New York City, honestly those fairs are cripplingly too low.
I think there needs to be a raise, perhaps coupled with some other sources. You have a system where cards are inserted when all of Europe and the world is using tap systems.
Those improvements need money from somewhere unfortunately.
4
@Frea
"all the world" is NOT using a tap system- and these systems are working reliably and efficiently
the MTA is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to implement a tap system to replace the MetroCard, which is working fine. ... will this tap system work for tourists, low income residents, seniors with no, old, or foreign devices
@stefanie
As a tourist in London a few weeks ago, it was an absolute luxury being able to tap on and off with my iPhone or with a credit card that has that capability (very common outside of the USA). Ticket machines were still available at all stations should the tap on feature fail.
2
Micromanagent is not the governor's job, never has been. Clearly Cuomo is playing political games at the expense of the MTA and riders. There is a constituency for underinvestment and Cuomo prefers them to riders and NYC. Cuomo and every state governor for the last 30 year is the biggest part of that problem.
26
Isn’t it high time for the Authority to act like the independent entity the law says it is? The law that says the Governor and others get to appoint a set number of qualified people and that’s it? The appointed board has the fiduciary duty of acting in the best interests of the transit system. The appointed board is not charged, anywhere, with carrying out anyone’s political directives or whims. In fact the most important job of these board members is to ignore the bombast.
11
Dear New Yorkers,
Cuomo says there can be no fare increase without an improvement in services. I'd suggest without budget increases you won't get the investment you need.
Whether that investment comes from fare payers or State Govt is up to you to decide. But you need to do something, your subway is slow, old and unreliable.
We pay through the nose for ours in London, but at least it generally works, with trains every 45 seconds on some lines.
58