Results tagged “transitcuts”

Starting Sunday, New Yorkers are getting a couple more minutes tacked onto their weekend commute. The MTA is extending stretches between trains to ten minutes from the current eight-minute window that currently exists on most lettered lines. But according an internal memo from NYC Transit President Howard Roberts, straphangers probably won't notice too much—he said they're already used to the longer waits because of the weekend construction they already put up with. And why exactly are service cuts still coming since we thought they were taken care of with the MTA bailout passed by the (once semi-functional) state legislature? Well, it turns out that all the feet dragging that led to the eleventh-hour bailout may be to blame since MTA officials say transit workers had already locked in their summer schedules under the original proposal. Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign told the News, "Instead of aiming to improve things, transit officials want to make it official that weekend service stinks!"

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 minutes during rush hours, there isn't much more they can do. The only relief they offer up is the building of the 2nd Avenue line--scheduled to open in 2015. Garodnick also highlighted how many passengers get stranded on platforms during weekday home games at Yankee Stadium and called for more bus lines to the Bronx. The MTA thinks that burden should be alleviated by the opening of a Metro-North station near the stadium next spring.