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Without help from Albany, the MTA says it will have to raise fares and cut service not once, but twice this year. The cash-strapped agency even began setting the stage Wednesday, reworking its budget process so it can come to the board next month with a new round of gap-closing measures.

"We essentially have to, if you will, if we don't get a rescue package from Albany, throw our budget out the window," said MTA Executive Director & CEO Elliot "Lee" Sander.

The MTA says the current doomsday plan, which includes a fare increase set to take effect May 31, isn't enough to counteract plummeting tax revenue and declining ridership, which have created an additional $621 million hole this year, and a projected one billion dollar gap next year.

Under the new accelerated timetable, the MTA board would approve the additional moves in June. After holding the legally required public hearings, the MTA could then raise fares and cut service again as soon as this fall. Details regarding how much those additional increases would be, however, have yet to be presented.

"You think the 40 hours of public hearings that we did a couple of months ago were gonna be bad, you ain't seen nothing yet," said MTA Board Member Allen Cappelli.

"The bottom line is, it turns out that there's a transit doomsday budget behind the current one that we already have," said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.

The MTA has already begun the process of implementing layoffs, sending letters to union leaders about the first round of job cuts. In all, 1,100 transit workers could be given pink slips.

In this first round of layoffs, set for two months from now, the MTA plans to cut 350 bus operators, 100 bus maintainers, and 30 subway station supervisors.

Albany could still come to rescue, but the longer they wait, the more money they'll have to come up with. Some MTA officials are growing testy at lawmakers' calls for an audit of the agency, inviting them to read the independent audits it already commissions.

"These audits are not here for somebody's fun, and the idea that the legislature thinks that we don't do it is absolutely absurd," said MTA Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger.

Meanwhile, some effects of the MTA's first round of service cuts were already being felt Wednesday, as spring racing season opened at Belmont Park without any direct Long Island Rail Road service, which was eliminated to cut costs.