State Senate Dems Agree On Tentative MTA Bailout Plan

I believe if the plan passes there would not be any service cuts. Though will the MTA raise the fares again next year? Didn't they find out they own more money then planned? Will this bailout not raise fares again?

If this passes, there will be no service cuts and it'll just be a straight 8% hike.

Though this doesn't solve the next financial crisis, which should bubble over by December or so.

Yuck. While there is a sense of relief that services will not be suspended (I do like the W), I am disappointed that this ‘crisis’ moment will not yield real change to the unsustainable operating structure(s) of the MTA.

The overtures to cost save recently touted in a ‘memo’ MUST materialize into tangible, visible efforts to change at this (still) state agency. Perhaps the Senate and Assembly conference can attach an amendment to demand that?

I don’t know what the shape of it should be, but it seems like the Federal Government is on the right track with Chrysler and GM, etc. These are the moments. Leverage! From monstrous SUVs to highly efficient plug-in electrics in only a few quarters! Shuttering plants laying off workers but likely hiring thousands back in a future - that is more sustainable.

For some reason, I still trust that the current MTA management team has the aptitude to get it right and (as a liberal) I want to give the union leadership the benefit of all my doubts. Yet I think we need to force their hand - and ‘give them permission.’ While applying the uncomfortably strong personal pressure, we need to bring them along by rewarding signs of behavior! Grant broad reorganization authority along with benchmark financial targets. Force it or force them out. Yet, give them bonuses (and workers aid) if they can save us $200 million each year. Otherwise buh bye. Next.

My head is filled with ideas to paradigm shift… Do we really need a LIRR and a MetroNorth RR company and all the insane legacy duplication and contortions? Can’t they just be ‘brands’ of the same RR operator? Is bankruptcy the only way to dissolve this ancient petrified structure? (Heck Delta absorbed NWA and her unions like it was nothing and that was much more complicated - an international maneuver in a time when the economy was (is) on the floor!)

NJ is in financial crisis too, are there not MTA efficiencies with NJ Transit? Oh that’s right we don’t talk to them. Insane.

And underground, we are wasting money every second we don’t start using the technologies employed all over Europe. What are those - we barely know!? And are there not capital and operating efficiencies with the Port Authority and NYC Transit? Did PATH really need to develop its own new rail fleet when NYC cars would have done just fine? I know I know! Little kingdoms don’t fall easily.

Think about how we have been failed by our MTA and get (just a little) angry. We are NEW YORK! We should be one-upping Paris’ METEOR line or London’s JUBILEE! Our stations should be safe, clean and full of amenities. We should be installing platform doors and air conditioning, our tourists should be playing with touch screen guidance devices, our commuters should be using their RFID enabled debit cards at turnstiles, we ALL should be watching electronic signs with accurate next train arrival info!

Yes change is tough; jobs are going to be lost but great ones will be made - We MUST find a way to bring our 19th century transit system into the 21st century.

So yes, relief sure but it seems very temporary, but its clearly a lost opportunity to put pressure on the well compensated group to come together and bring us there. Its their job to do this, not just barely ‘hold it together.’

Great comment movedeast! The MTA is horribly inefficient. They need a whole-scale audit to eliminate duplicate administrative positions such as payroll and find ways to be more efficient. Right now they are above the law in many instances and that doesn't exactly prompt cost-cutting. The state should just take them over totally...or at least make the executive director a publicly elected position.