Results tagged “chairmankalikow”

MTA Chairman Peter S. Kalikow announced that he is stepping down from his position as chairman of the MTA. Kalikow, who was appointed by then Governor George Pataki back in 2001, was reappointed to a 6-year term last summer, which suggested there might be battles ahead between him and new governor Eliot Spitzer. But at the end of 2006, Kalikow said he would step down during the second quarter of this year, after finishing up some projects, like the Second Avenue Subway. Here are some quotes from the MTA press release:

“I am a firm believer in setting aggressive goals, accomplishing those goals and then giving others the opportunity to both expand upon those initiatives and create new ones with fresh vision and new energy,” said Kalikow. “As both a longtime public servant and an avid supporter of term limits as a means to maintain healthy and effective government leadership, I believe the public will be best served by my decision.”

Continue reading "MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow Announces Resignation"

A man's fall into the subway tracks is now cause for a lawsuit. Angel Diaz, a nurse's aide who was headed to Lincoln Hospital for a job application, says he slipped on the wet platform at the 143rd Street Station and then "tripped on a bump in the cement used to repair a leak from a janitor's closet." Diaz's lawyer says he "flew" onto the tracks, where a subway car ran over his hand.

Yesterday, MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow revealed the 2007 $10 billion MTA budget, confirming that there will be no fare hikes in 2007 and 2009. But some transit advocates think that Kalikow's strategy of implementing hikes every other year (one is expected in 2008) is just delaying the inevitable given the crippling deficits expected. Beverly Dolinsky of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA told the Post, "[Kalikow is] putting it in the lap of the next administration. I don't know how they can say there aren't going to be any fare increases." All Gothamist wants for the holidays is a cage match between Kalikow and Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer over the state of the MTA.

Newsday has a good article looking at the transportation issues the next governor will deal with - the biggest being the MTA. The MTA, which already announced fare hikes for next year, faces insane budget deficits in the coming years: $905 million in 2008, $1.13 billion in 2009, $1.48 billion in 2010. The Straphangers' Campaign's Gene Russianoff says of the MTA, "They borrowed a ton of money to fix a system, and now the bill is coming due."

Well, looks who is Mr. Helpful all of a sudden: MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow is opposed to service cuts the MTA was planning to consider in its budget. The service cuts, which were reported yesterday in the NY Times, would have been extensive, piling on many minutes of waiting time for subways and buses as service. Critics - including our readers - freaked out, and especially considering plans to increase the subway and bus fare by 5%. Yesterday Kalikow said:

“What I’m doing, officially, is letting New York City Transit know that the M.T.A. board, which runs New York City Transit, does not want a fare increase or service cuts and they need to find other things to do, if necessary. Those two things are not things we’re going to be interested in....

Continue reading "Kalikow to Put Kibosh on Proposed MTA Service Cuts"

The MTA says their current offer is their "final offer" to the Transit Workers Union. And what's the offer? Three percent each year over a three year contract; the union wants 8% more. And benefits-wise, the MTA would ask new hires to pay 1% of their pay to go towards their health plans (workers do not do this now). Finally, the MTA wants to increase the retirement age from 55 to 62 after 30 years of service, whereas the TWU wants to lower the age to 50 after 20 years of service, for new hires; the TWU says there would be "two tiers" employees, which they don't want. (Here are some more of the union's demands, which include child care and the MTA's excessive challenges to the TWU's arbitration.)

Good for those riders! Please, Chairman Kalikow doesn't get enough complaints for Gothamist's liking. If you see this man, bug him!

Hurry! Go to the MTA's Subway Service Advisory E-mail Notification Pilot page and sign up to get emails from the MTA about what service issues there will be on the weekends. Yes, just like knowing the L train will be out for every weekend in a month! In the future, the MTA hopes to email people about sudden service issues, but it's all about the baby steps, people. Only 10,000 people can enter this pilot program. Gothamist will take a look at what we get from the MTA, maybe slap it up on Gothamist or at least provide a review or whether this works well.

thing to do! The biggest transit union filed a suit saying the West Side railyards bidding should be reopened because the MTA perhaps didn't get enough money out of it. And the Straphangers Campaign and Tri-State Transportation Campaign, plus the NY chapter of Common Cause, are joining the suit. While it sucks to be MTA Chairman Kalikow (or NYC Transit President Reuter), Gothamist imagines that the MTA's lawyers are feasting on this like a fatted calf, given what they have to do with Cablevision's lawsuit. We're curious how far the courts will let these lawsuits go, as well as how effective the arguments each side makes will be...perhaps it'll be the International Olympic Committee's summer announcement of the 2012 venue that will really put the screws in for one side, as the NYC bid is contingent on a West Side Jets Stadium.

- ...this news is less great in light of 600 token booth clerks losing their jobs, as the MTA continues to find ways to cut costs. The Daily News reports that 49 round-the-clock and 115 part-time booths will be closed. The MTA says that stations where booths have been closed have not seen any jumps in crime, but the NYC Transit Rider Council says, "People feel less safe when they don't see a token person there. Whether it is perception or reality, that's the way they feel."