Future Of MTA: More Countdown Clocks, No Stopping For Tolls?

from Trish Mayo's flickr

As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority considers far-reaching service cuts that could eliminate free Metrocards for students and nix entire subway lines, the MTA's chairman unveiled a series of agency-wide goals intended to make commuting easier. MTA Chair Jay Walder said the city's public transit needs a "top-to-bottom overhaul" because "many service improvements are long overdue and ... customers are tired of hearing excuses."

Walder said the agency will move forward with its plan to install countdown clocks on all of the numbered train lines and will experiment with a "smart," MetroCard-less fare system on the Lexington Avenue subway lines, some crosstown buses, and PATH and NJTransit trains, the Daily News reports. According to the Times, the MTA plans to remove the gates from the E-ZPass toll lanes on the Henry Hudson Bridge between Manhattan and the Bronx, and move toward implementing an all-electronic fare-collection system that would charge E-ZPass owners and send fare-collection letters to drivers without E-ZPass devices in their cars.

The MTA will continue to push state legislators to allow the use of surveillance cameras to punish drivers who obstruct bus-only lanes, and it will begin to paint and clean subway stations more frequently. Considering that the agency employs some 5,000 administrative employees doing redundant work and maintains a whopping 92 different customer information phone numbers, a major part of the overhaul will be streamlining office practices, the Advance reports. Walder's plans for the future come at a time when the MTA is facing a $400 million budget shortfall. Making matters worse, a new report shows the agency lost $100 million in fare and toll revenue due to drops in ridership caused by the recession, the Post reports.

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By Ben Muessig in News on January 15, 2010 3:11 PM

Comments [rss]

JLRodP

NYCT was built buy private funds and ran perfectly well as a private business. It wasn't until the city began pushing the NYCT to expand without letting it increase its fare. The city took over and ever since has been running on deficits and increasing fares threefold.

nivek

We're still collecting fares at the same rate...corruption aside, this is awful for revenue.

Thinky Think

The mta always has a deficit. I fully expect another deficit this year and increase in fare.Its not cheap to maintain a luxurious lifstyle after all.

thefacts

When will the MTA get serious and reverse the iniquitous one-way toll on the Verrazano Bridge, which is a major cause of traffic congestion along the BQE in Brooklyn and in lower Manhattan?

Ben K

So, in my opinion, it's not really correct to say that the MTA lost revenue on ridership declines. As I wrote at SAS today, the MTA's own projections for 2009 included those lost ridership figures. There are a whole bunch of other conclusions to draw from DiNapoli's report, but saying the MTA is out $100M is a little misleading.

Dan Dickinson

will experiment with a "smart," MetroCard-less fare system on the Lexington Avenue subway lines, some crosstown buses, and PATH and NJTransit trains

Hopefully they'll experiment with the existing PATH SmartLink cards. I've been really impressed with how well that system works.

alice17

MTA Chair Jay Walder said the city's public transit needs a "top-to-bottom overhaul"

Okay Jay, is this actually going to happen?

"...move toward implementing an all-electronic fare-collection system that would charge E-ZPass owners and send fare-collection letters to drivers without E-ZPass devices in their cars."

Yes, let's waste paper by sending out letters to non E-ZPass drivers instead of continuing to collect the money right then and there. I guess I don't really understand the point of this.

imadick

hello alice, let me introduce you to a little thing called "traffic" that happens at toll booths.

alice17

Hi Dick. I think the MTA has worse problems on their hands and more to worry about than traffic.

imadick

like what? they're the TRANSPORTATION authority. keeping people moving through the metro area is what they're here for, and that's more than just making the trains run on time.