A new study put out by City Councilman Daniel Garodnick hopes to save east side trains in Manhattan from suffering the ax that is likely coming to various lines around the city. The survey of the Lexington Avenue lines at rush hour discovered "130 riders kept off of each downtown 6 train at 77th Street during morning rush, ...on two days, the number was over 400." The MTA says that with trains running every two......

Photograph by phrenologist on Flickr After much speculation and the local papers preparing commuters for what was to come, the MTA made their official budget proposal today and as expected, the cutbacks were dramatic. In addition to the slashing of the W and the Z lines among other cuts listed Tuesday, today's 2009 budget also included the following: Increasing weekend wait times by 25% on most lines Raising express bus fares from $5 to......

The MTA is meeting today to discuss its $1.2 billion budget gap. While the agency refuses to comment on any specific measures until next month, big fare hikes and service cuts are expected. Today, the Daily News reports that the M8 bus, which travels across the East Village and West Village is eliminated, according to a budget proposal, as well as some express bus routes (the QM22, X25, and X32). One thing that could help......

Photograph of a crowded E train by milkshakepants on Flickr While the MTA doesn't want to comment yet on how they might close the $1.2 billion budget gap, the speculation continues. The Daily News thinks the "base fare will likely rise into the $2.50-to-$3 range," adding, "Officials haven't set new target prices for the unlimited-ride MetroCards." Yesterday, the News details how service would be cut, like eliminating the Z, cutting G and M service......

Photo from heathbrandon on Flickr With the MTA's budget deficit now being projected at 1.2 billion (after an original prognosis of 900 million), the Daily News has learned that a report to be released Thursday will include what some are calling "Doomsday" cuts. The big one for many commuters is the elimination of the W line. Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. wasted no time in jumping in on the talk of getting rid of the W.......

As we briefly mentioned yesterday, the grades have come in on the second annual rider report cards for the L and 7 train lines. While only half the riders on the L and a quarter of those who take the 7 train turned in a report card when compared to a year ago, the results were roughly the same--consistently staying in the C-range in most categories. MTA officials were quick to highlight how riders gave......

Wide image of Google Maps' (correct) explanation of how to use the subway from Grand Central to Madison Square Garden, with inset of the incorrect Google Maps ad As a reader pointed out, while Google's Google Maps ads-wrapped subway cars are nifty-looking, an ad inside the car "mislabels Times Square as Grand Central Station." The mistake implies that one can get the 1, 2 or 3 from Grand Central--when everyone knows that the only......

Last week, WCBS 2 first mentioned that the MTA might consider adding tolls to the free East River bridges--the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and 59th Street--as a way to raise much-needed revenue. Now, Governor Paterson confirmed to the news station, "I think that very accurately we may have to look at tolls on the bridges right in the city... The MTA itself which has a deficit, a debt, which is higher than 46 states, now has......

Interesting: The Daily News reports that driver demand to use MTA bridges and tunnels has fallen 4.8% when comparing last month's figures (25 million) to October 2007 (when there were 26.3 million drivers). Another stat: Traffic on the Manhattan crossings was down 4% between September and October. One hypothesis is that recent layoffs mean there's less reason to head into Manhattan. However, average weekday subway ridership increased 4.3% "in the 12 months ending Sept. 30,"......

Last month the History Channel series "Cities of the Underworld" was the first subway wrap ad to be unveiled on the Times Square Shuttle. Now Google Maps has stepped up to the plate, helping the MTA with their huge budget crisis by paying for a colorful ad campaign on the S. NYC the Blog notes that "Google has only wrapped the exterior of the train, leaving the interior with the more traditional ads we are......

A Queens woman who says a police officer used excessive force when he pepper sprayed her in the face during an arrest is suing the city for $3 million. According to the Daily News, Naeema Screven was rushing to catch the A train at the Broadway station in Brooklyn when she ducked under the yellow tape that divided the staircase into "up" and "down." That's a no-no. When she reached the bottom, she was stopped......

The MTA's scary financial situation has now given birth to a Daily News cover broadcasting a $3 fare hike possibility! Of course, it's only a possibility--that's probably why it shares space with news that the Obama daughters were invited to appear on Hannah Montana. However, the Straphangers Campaign's Gene Russianoff tells the News if there's no state bailout, "We could be looking at the mother of all fare hikes. This whopping increase would likely be......

Photograph by AminTorres Now, that the MTA's 2009 budget gap has quadrupled from $300 million to $1.2 billion, the agency is trying to figure out what to do next to close the gap. Regarding likely service cuts, fare hikes and possible layoffs, MTA CEO Elliott Sander said, "The word 'Draconian' is not inappropriate." The Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA's William Henderon said, "One of the scary things is if you look at......

Subway cars that spent their lifespan serving New Yorkers often retire at the bottom of a watery grave in Delaware and New Jersey, creating artificial barrier reefs. Why not dump the old cars in our own rivers and waterways? Technically, it's not allowed under current environmental codes, but just because the fish in the Gowanus canal likely have gonohorrea, doesn't mean they don't deserve a little reef love as well! NY1 reports that "Congressman Anthony......

The sky is falling undergound! (And above ground, where the buses drive.) At an MTA finance committee this morning, officials announced that they're looking at a $1.2 billion budget deficit in 2009, which is $300 million more than what was projected in July. Chief executive Elliot Sander says the dire fiscal situation was caused by a sharp drop in revenue from real estate and corporate taxes. Sanders also said that because "the 2000-2004 capital program......

Senator Charles Schumer is wasting no time: He tells the Daily News, "Washington can't do what it did in Herbert Hoover's time and twiddle its thumbs." Noting how Obama said that states must be helped during this economic downturn, the senior Senator from NY says Obama should help New York with money for "affordable housing, transportation and help hiring for cops." City Council member John Liu, chair of the Council's transportation committee, added that a......

With his back against the wall as his union's resources having been dried out, Transit Workers Union President Roger Toussaint has sworn in a court affidavit that transit workers have no intention of going on strike again "now or in the future." The affidavit was filed in hopes to have the union's automatic due payments restored, a privilege taken away after the TWU's illegal strike in 2005, a penalty that has cost it millions. Toussaint's......

Some more details about rumors that the MTA is considering tolls for the Brooklyn, Manhattan, 59th Street and Williamsburg Bridges. Apparently this proposal will be included in the Ravtich Commission's recommendation for ways for the MTA to raise revenue. Governor Paterson convened the commission after countless warnings from the agency about its dire financial situation. If the MTA does pass a toll, many drivers will be unhappy. The NY Post has two quotes from "average......

Just because congestion pricing didn't pass doesn't mean that tolls aren't possible on East River crossings: WCBS 2 reports that the MTA is considering tolling all Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, and 59th Street Bridges in order to deal with its huge budget gaps. Transportation engineer Sam Schwartz points out, "We already have tolls at the Battery Tunnel, Midtown Tunnel, the Triborough Bridge let's put pricing on all of the crossings in between... People coming into the......

The MTA has been trying to bring "real time arrival information" to bus stops--to let riders know when buses are headed to their stops-- since 2005, but, now, it looks like the project's time may have past. The Daily News reports that officials "halted some work 'pending a decision on the future of the project.'" The project is two years behind schedule, apparently been bedeviled by "citing software issues, a high failure rate of onboard......

Gotta love it: Yes, the MTA managed to salvage its West Side Rail Yards development plans by agreeing to a deal with developer Related and Goldman Sachs, after it tossed a deal with Tishman Speyer. But even though the agency and Related were planing on to sign a contract for the $15 billion project this week, that's been put on the back burner because the MTA has been, according to the Observer, "slower than expected......

Someone at SubChat is spreading lies...according to the MTA. The website has a posting titled: TAs Newest $16 Million Blunder, which goes on to describe how a subway car was "reefed sometime last month, by mistake, with a sophisticated biological/radiological sensing system still hidden within the car structure." There's more about how the "prototype sensor was installed in 2005 as part of a federally funded anti-terrorism project and is housed in a waterproof–shockproof case, similar......

Earlier this week, the MTA said that the proposed 8% subway and bus fare hike for next year might actually be higher. Why? Because the fare hike was discussed before the more recent economic downturn, credit problems, etc. (the MTA said, "Usually it doesn't change that much because our projections are pretty good. This year, because of the crisis, the changes are more significant."). It might be time to seriously consider alternative revenue streams like......

Two flat-screen monitors are being installed on the L train platform at the Myrtle-Wyckoff station in Brooklyn that will show the locations of trains in real time. Icons on the screens will indicate which direction the train is headed and how close is it to the station, with a long view of the entire L line, as well as a close-up view of nearby stations. According to NY1, riders will also see trains that are......

A reader spotted this new real-time information at the 28th Street 6 station, part of the MTA's much-anticipated but very delayed program to empower subway riders with information about when the next trains will arrive. What is on the horizon is a likely grim period for the MTA: The NY Times paints a depressing picture about the MTA's future, given the MTA's perpetual woes (lots of demands, no money for them) and how the......

Photo courtesy Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The MTA is currently testing out new digital screens that display ads on the sides of buses running on the M23 route. The screens, which use GPS technology to change according to each neighborhood's demographic, are being installed by New York-based ad company Titan Worldwide; the company's website declares that the 12-foot displays "are bright and unavoidable and will enable advertisers to target mass audiences by time of day, block,......

Some Park Slope activists have so little faith in the MTA's promise to renovate the dreary Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street station that they're imploring transit officials to scale back their plans and instead make a few specific improvements immediately. The massive refurbishment was supposed to begin this year and turn the "dank and dark" station into a light-filled hub with clean windows and a new copper roof. But the plans were later scaled back......

Following the news that garbage trucks would soon be creative canvas for advertisers, and with ads already in and now around subway cars...it was only a matter of time before the interior subway tunnels themselves became a money-maker as well. Who looks out the windows while underground? Who knows, but LA has commercial images projected on the interior of tunnels, and now NYC is going to try it out. The NY Times reports that "starting......

Photograph of commuters walking across the Brooklyn Bridge on December 20, 2005 by Jake Dobkin The Daily News reports that the MTA has been meeting with the Transit Workers Union, "holding secret negotiations to hammer out a contract months ahead of schedule - and without the usual rancor." Nice, as we all remember what rancor and a lack of a contract meant last time: A three-day transit strike without subway and bus service--the exercise......

A lawsuit against the MTA is about to go to trial surrounding the rape of a woman on a G train platform in Queens three years ago. And the victim, now 25, told the Daily News this weekend that she forgives her attacker ("I know he was sick in the head"), but not the token booth clerk at the 21st Street station, "I can't forgive those five seconds when I stared into his eyes, screaming......