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A S S O C I A T E P R O D U C E R |
While I think the MTA needs to reevaluate its numbers before burdening New Yorkers with another fare hike, I also think in order to get better service, prices will probably have to go up.
A lot of callers tonight brought up the cost of riding the subway in other states and countries. They said New Yorkers shouldn't complain because it's more costly to get around underground in other big cities, like London. Some also argued it's accpetable to have higher fares in such cities because the service is better, and the staions and trains are cleaner. Unfortunately, when it comes to the relationship between service and price, one hand washes the other.
I ride the subway everyday here in New York, and I've ridden it in Washington, D.C as well. Don't get me wrong, the Metro - as it's called in D.C. - is immaculate. Lights on the platform blink to warn you when the train is coming, and there are boards telling you how long until the next train. And get this? The times are accurate. But, it also cost more. You pay for your trip based on how far you are traveling. So, the city is making money off of the commuter. And, in turn, that money is going to improve service.
Sadly, it's a catch-22, and it seems New Yorkers are being forced to make a choice -- service or cost.
Today, the MTA proposed fare hikes as part of its plan to deal with a 900-million-dollar budget gap. The agency says it needs to increase revenues from fares and tolls by 8 percent, which could mean a 25-cent increase for subway and bus rides.
Citing high fuel costs and low real estate tax revenue, MTA Executive Director and CEO Lee Sander said, "The last thing we want to do is be up here right now asking for this."
Do you believe the MTA is proposing another fare increase as a last resort? Where should the additional revenue come from to prevent a fare increase: the State, the City or the MTA? What alternative ideas do you support to cut spending and raise money for the MTA?
Send us your thoughts using the link above.
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I don't mind having to spend a little extra for my train ride to work.
Compared to the average American, my commute to work is a fraction of the time and still a fraction of the total monthly average.
that said though, people who still drive into the city should pay more for the roads they use and the wear and tear they cause to the infrastructure.
The Mayors road congestion plan would have begun to work on this financing challenges.
Jon
UWS
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Hi, My name is Mary and I live in Midtown NY. I believe the monies should come from the MTA. Should get ride of some of those high paid personnel they have that does absolutely nothing for the public and use those monies to fill in the gap!
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Why doesn't the MTA ask the TWU to take a salary cut?
Chip
Upper East Side
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So they want to raise their fares AGAIN! Who's going to go to bat for us? Can the Governor or Mayor stop this?
What happened to the huge surplus MTA had couple of years ago? Whose pockets are full of that money now? It certainly didn't go for any improvements anywhere.
Why does MTA go through the b.s. and expense of "public hearings" when the MTA just goes and does whatever they want anyway? We're screwed no matter what.
Perhaps if we did do a "sick day" protest (as suggested in last night's program) and hit MTA in the purse strings, they might finally realize that they are nothing without us.
As I suggested before, let the CEO's and VPs put a freeze on their salaries -- you'll find your money there. And since MTA also supplements the LI Railroad and Metro North, how about raising the rates of your RICH friends in Westchester and Long Island and Connecticut and leave us poor schmucks alone already!
Love,
Dina and Ed of Throggs Neck
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The MTA needs to cut back on other expenses, staff just like the real world of business, in order to be cost effective instead of looking for another hand out to save their jobs. Deal with it just like the rest of us.
Nicole
Upper East Side
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I do not believe the MTA is using the fare hike as a last resort.
In the meantime, trains are still overcrowded, and don't have a good on time ratio especially during RUSH HOURS. Not to mention, the cleanliness of 75% of the entire system including stairs and elevators being used to get to the system leave a lot to be desired.
MissB
Harlem
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Let them cut their excessive expense accounts, trim the corporate offices, etc. I don't use mass transit but I feel sorry for those that use it to commute to earn a livelihood. Just keep digging deeper and deeper into the working middle class and lower. It's a shame.
Jessica
Arden Heights Staten Island
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For starters, let's cut down those six figure salaries and fringe benefits that these guys are still getting. They can't possibly think that it was enough to turn in their ez passes can they? They have got to do more, much, much more before they can even think of raising the fares. Sell those company cars these guys have to. Let's make sure they take the subway or at least use their own cars to get to and from the office.
Denise
Flatbush, Brooklyn
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The fare hike is not the last resort, it's the easy way out. How about they take a look at their inefficienty run organization. What business would be allowed to get away with these tactics? they would be either investigated or out of business. where are you Andrew coumo? why not investigate the MTA and I'll bet you will find lots of corruption. they sould be asking how can we be more efficient. the first thing I would do is get rid of these dispachers, the guys who stand at the end of some bus routes doing nothing!! MTA needs to go into the 21th century and use GPS to tack and guide bus flow!!.
you need to do a show on suggesstions for the MTA to make them more efficient! they need to be accountable to the people.
Belinda
forest hills
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ANSWER ME THIS QUESTION PLEASE. HOW MANY SEATS ON A SUBWAY WOULD BE TAKEN IF EACH SEAT WAS OCCUPIED BY THE AMOUNT OF VICE PRESIDENTS AND ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENTS WITHIN THE M.T.A.? NOW, OUTFIT THEM WITH CELLPHONES! WHAT IS THE COST OF THE CELLPHONE BILLS? BETWEEN THE SALARIES AND CELLPHONE BILLS I JUST CLOSED THE BUDGET GAP. PROBLEM SOLVED.
JOE, BAY TERRACE
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Bloomberg is correct you should be able to find a 5% savings in a $10 billion budget. If more people are riding the lines that means the revenue is up 12% also. This is an excuse rate rates. The MTA is badly managed why did they not lock the price in they pay for fuel, like soutrhwest airlaines did?
Tom
Richmondtown
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of the two, Governor Patterson had the right tack: the state should not allow a fare increase; bloomberg on the other hand is nuanced and too focused on green air conditioning units; me thinks we need a nother boston tea party. sander is woefully inadequate as a manager. If patterson wants to beat giuliani or bloomberg lets make the fare the issue. take away free passes for off duty cops.
John
Kissena Park
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Perhaps the MTA should start charging people to ride the one train line on Staten Island. The way it is set up now customers pay only when they board or alight at St. George. Riders between any other stations get a free ride.
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I use public transportation every day to get to work. I work for TSA and I travel at early morning hours and I feel the subway stations are very unsafe for traveling women. The subways are very dirty and you have bumbs and a lot of people in these stations that don't belong their. For the past 2 yrs or so they have reported a surplus and at the same time they say they need more money. They are constantly hiring people to help get the mta running but the same issue's keep coming up. Late trains unsafe enviorment no real people their to help if needed only signs they need a new game plan before they decide to hike the fares up again.
Angella
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I think it is time for the people to protest in an organized way. In Europe, in Mexico, people have massive public protests and they effect change.
Itss time to stop the insatiable appetite of the MTA and their Obvious mismanagement
Sheila
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Take fuel out of the equation for a moment as we know that is going up. I would like to see a graph that shows the increase in business expenses compared to revenue generated from all sources. Are administrative expenses outpacing revenue? If so, then we need to look at staffing levels and other non-related expenses compared to costs from administrative MTA costs.
John
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My input for this discussion is that the fare hike is only hurting the commuters who are living paycheck to paycheck and have to cut money from their food, rent, bill budgets to be able to afford to take the train to work.
I think in order to fix this problem the MTA should start cutting salaries of the higher ups by 5-10% and use that money to close the “so-called” budget gap. Some other ideas would include:
Putting a cap on salaries. Use Volunteer work to give college/highschool internships to cut costs. Etc.etc
Edwin
Sunset Park
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New Yorkers should have supported congestion pricing. It would have froze all fare hikes. It's unfortunate that we aren't educated enough to know what to support. Now we see the otherwise of the issue and we don't like what we see. You will pay whatever the MTA asks for. NY doesn't have enough backbone to boycott coffee, let alone the MTA.
Tre
East New York
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The most crippling cost the MTA faces is the interest payment on the $23 billion in debt it was forced to take on in the mid to late 1990's after former Gov. Pataki eliminated State funding for operating and capital budgets. Refinancing that debt to lower the interest payments (currently $1.5 billion annually) would relieve some of the budget pressure.
Reducing managers would also help. In the TA alone, the number of managers has increased from 550 in the early 1990's to over 5000 today, and at least 25% of those managers make over $150,000 annually.
Finally, the Public Authorities Law has to be reformed to allow State and City agencies to exercise jurisdiction over the MTA.
Anonymous
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Let free enterprise help out. Privatize the stations, let individuals or corporations run the stations. Hold the lesees responsible for service and cleanliness, and this will help the MTA reduce labor costs dramatically. Private entereprise will care for these stations, perhaps introduce amenities (wi-fi, coffee shops, etc).
Joe
Douglaston NY
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It is highly unfair specially since the services are so terrible (try taking the 4/5 in the rush hour). My suggestion is that they should try to increase the advertizing in the trains (moving billboards) and stations. NYC transit is used by ppl all across the nation and I am sure there will be advertisers ready to dish out big money for publicity.
Once they increase their funds through advertising, they can may be improve the quality/service. In some time if the commuters are happy with the MTA service they would not mind paying more.
Amit
Upper East Side
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The city is backward, the price of the trip should be used to encourage people to do business and shop in NY. It should be low enigh so that people avoid cars.
Therefore, if we raise fares, we need to make it costlier to drive, else more people will shift. Solution, each rider gets a non-transferable biometric Metro-Card priced to his income. Thus the more prosperous drivers can get high fee parking and high cost fare cards and teachers can get low cast fare cards.
Toni
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The geniuses in transit who installed these movie theatre type exits need to be held accountable. I work in the system and literally see hundreds of people per day just waltz through these doors like its FREE FRIDAY! And also theres a station in Brooklyn(Clinton Washington) on the G line that has 12!! Count em...12 of these exits!!!
Big Tony
Flatbush
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AS LONG AS THE AIR CONDITIONING IS FREEZING COLD DURING THE HOT SUMMERS, LIKE NOW, I CAN ACCEPT ANOTHER FARE INCREASE.
ANTHONY
SUNNYSIDE
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The MTA should become XXX. All they do is screw the public over and over and over again. Like I've said 1000 times. We need an alternative. They keep kicking us in the teeth because they know we have no other choices. Also like I said 100 times...they need to be investigated! They have money when they want to give themselves raises, but are broke when they want to raise the fare. Guess it depends on which book they pick up on any given day. I'm buying a bike!
Norm
Upper East Side
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I don't see what people are so worried about, in London fares are more than double those in New York!
Anonymous
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Why is it that the NYC subway system is the dirtiest in the country, if not the world? How about cleaning up the subway so more people would be inclined to ride them? Why are there continual hikes without any improvement in our quality of life?
Marlo
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I've seen this scenario played out over the last twenty years on this job. Always six months before our contacts ends this company cries poverty to whoever listens. Once our sorry leadership excepts another garbage contract low and behold we find millions in surplus. And lets not forget how our new govenor cut the budget once he took office. We must not forget how Mayor Mike short changes the system on the school passes.
Joe
Parkchester
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First off, I would suggest that everyone go to the following link on the MTA's website regarding the current financial state of the MTA -- it is very informative if your viewers are interested in viewing un-audited financial data on the MTA.
http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mta/indicators.htm
Now on to the fare increases. It should be up to the city, state and federal government to increase funding to mass transit. How serious can the government be about protecting the environment when they don't properly fund mass transit.
John
Riverdale, NY
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Putting TV's in the subway stations? Really? Is that the best the MTA can come up with?
What we should be doing is looking at ways to alter our assumptions about supply and demand and then create solutions that leverage economic realities instead of fighting them. First, a few assumptions:
High gas prices are here to stay, which means there is going to be sustained increased demand for mass transit.
We are experiencing an historic opportunity to increase mass transit ridership, at a time when climate change makes doing so critical.
Higher transit fares reduce the incentive to use mass transit. Lower transit fares increase ridership, but also increase costs and strain available capacity.
Mass transit capacity, in the short and medium term, is essentially fixed.
Now, given all that, what can be done? Raising fares and selling more advertising may offset the MTA's revenue shortfall (temporarily), but does nothing to alter the basic imbalance between supply and demand. Here are a few ideas, which implemented together would increase ridership and revenues without further straining capacity:
Use variable pricing on the subways and buses based on the time of day. Increase the fare very slightly during peak commuting hours, and make it much lower or even free for 1-2 hours before and after those times. Provide incentives for businesses to encourage workers to shift their work days to travel at off-peak times, when the system has lots of spare capacity. Metrocards can be programmed with different fares for different times (as is currently done on New Year's Eve, for example). The trains run at those off-peak times anyway, it won't cost the MTA much more to actually have some more people on them.
Increase tolls slightly for inbound crossings (at all times).
Buses use essentially the same amount of fuel whether they are full or empty. Reduce schedules during off-peak times. Use smaller buses when possible.
Create "Metrocard subscriptions" for auto-renewing monthly passes. Charge a little more for the convenience (maybe $10-15), generating additional revenue not only from the increased price but by eliminating the gaps that occur when people only replace an expired card "the next time they need it". The Metrocard should behave like an EZ-Pass for the subway, complete with monthly statements, incentives, promotions, whatever. The subway's great - sell people on the benefits! Millions of people pay every month for gym memberships they don't even use; they would line up to pay for a "premium" Metrocard.
Allocate a certain percentage of increased revenues to improving highly visible "customer satisfaction" issues. We all know what they are.
Beef up the "green" messaging, and appeal to people's desire to be more environmentally responsible.
Use round numbers please! Nobody wants to live in a city with a subway fare of $2.07, or whatever. It's embarrasing, and stupid. Makes me want to pay with my leftover 39- and 41-cent stamps.
Jim
Manhattan
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The city needs to kick in more funding to the MTA.
The MTA should refinance their cost to borrow capital debts thru opening employee contributions to personal accounts (similar to savings) with a more competitive interest over banks.
To the guy that is blaming the TWU, maybe he would like a Manhattan Residence Income Tax charge for those living between 60th and 96th street to fund transportation.
The real White Elephant as opposed to the 800 pound Gorilla are the one not paying their fair taxes to anything in life. They make a lot of money but yet want everything for free.
No Joke.
Anonymous
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The MTA has just proposed a fare increase of 8% and in addition to that a toll increase and this I believe is highway robbery.This will be two years in a row that this is being done. Now we are in a recession and the poor and the middle class will be hurt the most. I think it is like being robbed and you want the perpetrators arrested. Well in my opinion in this case all we can do as communters is demand all the offficers of the MTA to be held accountable for trying to fleece the public. And one person I would like to be held accountable is CEO Lee Sander and explain to me and every New Yorker that everything is being done to eliminate waste and mismanagement, than and only than should a fare increase be proposed. To the MTA I say," Go back to the drawing board."
Frederick
Glen Oaks Village, N.Y.
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(keep up the GREAT work!!!)
We know from history; that the subway system is 105 years old. In all that time they have revamped the 4-5-6-2 (RR-N currently) with monotonous recordings (Good for week end tourists) but not the every day commuter.
My feeling; as painful as it would be is this; Close each train one by one and lay down state of the art tracks (every day would be like a week end with one difference) We would know which tracks/trains are out of service) I have read that in Tokyo the trains do not even have to touch the tracks, giving a smoother faster ride.
I have been working in the Wall Street area for 6 years. In the perfect world my commute would be the #6 to Times Square for the numbers 4 or 5--but the timing is usually off. The local is usually faster, then both express trains (an article yesterday stated as much) which make NO SENSE. The trains always make stops to avoid hitting each other, even though the stations are equipped with Red and Green lights. The #6 also has stronger AC units that run more consistently.
In a world where we can flash news around the world within minutes, it seems the New York City subway system and its affiliates should stop crying poverty, and start a re-building process; thus making the increases seem sensible!!!
They should run faster during rush hour; not slower. That’s why we call it rush hour!
Rick B.
Manhattan