Photograph by Mao Says What on Flickr In the first State of the MTA Address, MTA CEO and Executive Director Elliot Sander mentioned the agency would invest an additional $30 million in more subway service, new and extend bus service in the city and additional commuter trains for LIRR and Metro-North. Now the Daily News finds out the MTA probably won't be able to do so, thanks to the faltering economy. The MTA said,......

A new website, Subway Crush, could mark the end of romantic quests like the one undertaken by Patrick Moberg last fall, when he created a website to find a cute girl he spotted on the subway. His efforts won him international fame, book and movie offers, and, yes, a date with the young lady. Oh, and plenty of derision. In the Subway Crush dating scene, no such creativity is required. The site basically takes......

5-Year Regional Transit Map of Planned Improvements, (large version) from Streetsblog The Regional Planning Association released a map of what service and capital improvements tri-state riders can expect, even in the absence of approval for a congestion pricing plan. NYC Transit riders have a lot to be unhappy about following a fare hike, followed by the announcement that promised service improvements were off the table, followed by the prospect of yet another fare hike......

Last week we learned that all New York taxis will soon be held to higher fuel efficiency standards; starting next October new cabs must get at least 25 miles per gallon. But the cab changes don’t stop there – in addition to upcoming GPS and touch-screen video technology, the Taxi and Limousine Commission is considering selling an unlimited card for cab riders, which may feature “fare integration” with buses and subways. Over half the city’s......

The board of the MTA voted this morning in favor of increasing the cost of multiple-ride Metrocards. According to NY1, the outcome of the vote was a foregone conclusion following the public agreement between Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg that riders needed to pay more to ride subways and buses. The pair have effective control of ten of the 14 board members' votes. The cost of an unlimited monthly Metrocard will rise $5, from $76......

Ahead of tomorrow's vote on a proposed fare hike, the MTA finance committee committee has approved an increase in fares for subways, buses and commuter trains as well as bridge and tunnel tolls. The committee voted 5-1 in favor of the MTA's proposed 2008 budget, which includes the increased rates. The increase comes despite the authority's projected $521 million surplus at the end of the year and the possibility of another large surplus next year......

A Columbia grad student, Arun Wiita, and the New York Civil Liberties Union brought a lawsuit against the NYPD last Thursday. Over the summer, Wiita was photographing a subway station entrance and its surroundings at 207th Street and 10th Avenue as part of an ambitious 10-day photography project. He was detained by police, handcuffed and held for 30 minutes; now Wiita is "seeking compensatory damages and reimbursement of legal fees." He believes that his South......

Who needs a strip club when you can just ride the New York City subways? In March, four limber women took to the subway in a quest to win $10,000 from DareJunkies.com. The website offered the prize to the best public pole dance. The video features Laura Lee Anderson, Jessica Wu, Marissa Lupp, Isis Masoud, and regular subway riders as the four grind their way to the $10,000 prize. The scantily clad women were......

The New York City Transit Authority, the MTA division that oversees the subways and buses, will be now split up the management of the subway lines and instead assign a manager to deal with a line or a number of lines. The NY Times spoke to NYC Transit president Howard Roberts Jr.:The goal, Mr. Roberts said, is to have 24 subway lines operating in many ways as 24 self-contained railroads. (The number may vary,......

A report compiled by New York City Transit indicates that delays in on-time performance by subway trains have increased every since 2004. According to The New York Times, the delays are worst during the subway rush hour, when 8% of trains fail to perform according to schedule. The NYC Transit report cited track work as by far the largest cause of delays, as transit employees attempt to modernize or even repair the subway. But......

Dunh dunh DUNH! Governor Spitzer has announced that he is asking the MTA to hold off raising subway and bus fares! Spitzer, who has been smarting from widely hated policy proposals and low approval ratings, made a pre-Thanksgiving bid to show he's listening to his public and said, during a specially planned 9AM press conference, via CityRoom: As the M.T.A. budget forecasts, their balance sheets yielded another $220 million. Based on the current economic......

Should Bob Saget, John Stamos or … that other guy... decide to keep it real by riding the New York City subway, they’ll likely find themselves wondering whatever happened to predictability. That’s right; consider yourselves on notice Danny Tanner, Joey and Uncle Jesse. The Olsen twins are one thing, but our subways are full enough without you and your irreverent hi-jinks, thank you very much. Though we might consider an exception for Stamos if......

Tonight, the MTA will hold public hearings in Long Island and Queens about the proposed fare and toll hikes. And if Monday night's hearing in Brooklyn is any indication, things will probably be rollicking. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz earned applause when he said, "Ladies and gentleman, fuhgeddaboutit!" (the Post reported the agency reaction: "MTA board members sat stone-faced") while the Straphangers Campaign's Gene Russianoff brought a life-size cut-out of Governor Spitzer. Markowitz and Russianoff......

FAIR: The International vintage poster fair has arrived. It's time to take that ironic velvet Elvis off the wall and class up your joint. The fair will include "over 25 international dealers with more than 10,000 original vintage posters." More info here. Friday 5 - 9 pm , Saturday 10 am - 7 pm, Sunday 11 am - 6 pm // Metropolitan Pavilion [123 W 18th St 5th floor] // $15 MUSIC: We'll be at......

MUSIC: It's CMJ, check out one of the zillions of bands playing. Since trying to pick just one show is tough, we'll suggest one for you. Head over to Brooklyn tonight for Dirty on Purpose, A Place to Bury Strangers, Sisters, Coin Under Tongue and Indian Scout. They'll be taking the stage at Death by Audio. Listen: Mind Blindness.mp3 - Dirty on Purpose 8pm // Death by Audio [49 South 2nd St, Williamsburg] And come......

The New York Times has an interesting profile of the Senior Vice President for subways at NYC Transit, Michael Lombardi, who will retire next month after 45 years with the agency. He began working for the city making $2.63 an hour as a machinist's helper in 1962 and at the age of 18. He feels, along with many others, that his greatest contribution during his career was the work done to pull the subway system......

The hilarity never ends when talking about cell phone service in the subways. The City Council spoke to the MTA about the agency's upcoming cell phone service plans, and apparently some members suggested that there should be "quiet cars" on the subway. We cannot stop laughing! City Councilman Oliver Koppell suggested that quiet cars would be a haven from the chattering masses who would use cell phones in the cars. (Let's not forget that the......

We love Open House New York - it's a wonderful opportunity to venture into usually off-limits buildings and places and learn more about them. We tried to take advantage and managed to go to six different sites this year across three boroughs. We would have done more, but the weekend subway work threw a monkey wrench into things. Given what we wanted to see, we skipped everything that needed reservations, since we knew that......

Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D, 51st District) wants to ban alcohol ads on buses and subways. The ads provide just $3 to $5 million of the $100 million in revenue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority gets from ad sales and the MTA has not taken a position on the proposed legislation. The state’s Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services did express support for the legislation calling it "consistent with our strategy of preventing alcoholism......

Mayor Bloomberg continued his Transatlantic trip, heading from Paris to a couple stops in Britain. And if you believe the billionaire isn't running for President, well, get a load of what he said while speaking to Britain's conservative party:“The Conservative Party in the U.K. is much more fiscally conservative than many American politicians who call themselves conservative. Too many of our conservatives in the United States want to run up enormous deficits and hope......

A scary incident at a Penn Station subway station: A woman in a wheelchair rolled into a moving subway. The 50-something woman apparently lost control of her wheelchair; the Post reports that she hit an uptown 2 train "just as it began pulling out, and ricocheted into a pillar." Yikes! The woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. The Daily News noted, "Despite blood collecting on the platform, travelers went about their business"......

We haven't checked in on Gossip Girl since the show was filming around town and the producer touted New York as a main character in each episode. To summarize: the show is like a New York-based version of The OC (in fact it's another Josh Schwartz creation), except the rich kids don't act like kids, they act like their parents. Meanwhile, the omniscient, omnipresent, anonymous oggler Gossip Girl blogs about it all. So two episodes......

Back in July, the MTA said that fare hikes would be likely for subways and buses (not to mention the LIRR, Metro-North and bridges and tunnels). Now the agency has announced two proposed solutions: A standard across-the-board increase and, more intriguingly, a two-tier system that would discount fares for rides during off-peak hours. Both plans would call for the base fare to be increased to $2.25, but some Metrocard users would only pay $1.50......

In case you didn't realize it on August 8, when a tropical storm caused the massive flooding in the streets and subways, essentially shutting down the system, the MTA didn't so such a great job of anticipating the storm's severity or letting riders know how to get around. But now, a report to Governor Spitzer lays it all out in its 115-page glory (here's the PDF). Highlights:Operations Findings: - The storm was not predicted......

Two years after asking various companies to bid to bring cellphone service to the subways, the MTA has finally picked a vendor to wire all stations. Here are the details:Transit Wireless will pay the MTA at least $4.6 million each year over 10 years; Transit Wireless is made up of four communications and constructions companies. Subway stations will be wired for cellular and wireless service. Subway tunnels will not be wired, which means cellphone use......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

It was originally named the 8th Avenue Subway, but the 'A' train turns 75 today, having opened September 10th, 1932. Officials are holding a ceremony at the line's northernmost station––Inwood/207th St.––and will be running six antique railcars from the 1930s during the day to commemorate the event. This is more than the Eighth Ave. Subway garnered on its opening day: Back in 1932, just before midnight, transit workers simply dropped chains blocking access to......

Unfortunately, what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas. Last night MTV took over the Strip and filled it with up and comers, the standard rock, rollers and rappers and of course...the token has beens. Last week The New York Times reported on some problems at the network over the past few years. For one thing, critics say the Video Music Awards, intended as a raucous counterpoint to more staid ceremonies, has become stale......

Did you ever want to see an animated map of how the city's subways were built? Okay, probably not, but 2nd Avenue Sagas points us to a map someone made that shows the lines in the order they were built.Starting with the Franklin St. Shuttle, remnants of the original Brooklyn El system, and the far reaches of the J line which contain the oldest surviving transit structures still in use in the city, the......

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a new campaign, Just Ask The Locals, "the City's first-ever five-borough marketing and advertising campaign to make visitors feel more welcome, thank them for visiting, and help them navigate New York City." The Mayor made the announcement at the new American Airlines terminal at JFK and said, "New Yorkers have always been welcoming and friendly, but not enough people around the world know it. So now we're going the extra mile......