Media Links

March 7, 2012

  • M.T.A. director says coming toll hikes will pay for pension costs, barely
    Source: Capital New York
    If the Metropolitan Transportation Authority votes to raise fares and tolls for a 7.5 percent revenue increase, as currently planned, nearly all of the resulting revenue will go toward covering the rising costs for employee health care and pensions. That’s what the agency’s director of government affairs Hilary Ring told the City Council’s transportation committee this afternoon.
  • Fare Increases to Cover MTA Worker Costs
    Source: Wall Street Journal
    Rising Metropolitan Transportation Authority pension and health-care costs will absorb most of the $900 million generated by planned fare and toll increases in 2013 and 2015, authority officials said Tuesday.
  • Car Wash Workers Protest Conditions, Pay
    Source: Transportation Nation
    Standing in front of the Metro Car Wash in Rego Park, Queens, Tuesday a few dozen car wash workers, union activists, and a couple of city council members kicked off a campaign to organize workers and improve conditions at the almost 200 car washes across New York City.
  • CNT Study Highlights Economic Benefits of Transit Access
    Source: Mobilizing the Region / Tri-State Transportation Campaign
    Think living in Manhattan is expensive? Try living in the suburbs. While this may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, a new analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology finds that Manhattan residents spend a lower percentage of their income on housing and transportation than their counterparts in car-dependent suburbs like Westchester County, NY, Litchfield County, CT, or Warren County, NJ.
  • New York transportation planners look to tax increment financing
    Source: City & State
    Raise tolls and fares, or beg government for more support: These are the traditional strategies for transportation agencies to pay their bills in cash-strapped times.
  • Speaker Silver supports Gov. Cuomo’s 401(k)-style pension reform? Years ago, maybe
    Source: NY Daily News
    The longtime Albany powerbroker told reporters Tuesday that he probably would have signed up for Gov. Cuomo’s proposed 401(k)-style pension alternative had it been available when he started his government career. But that does not mean he'll support the proposed reform now.
  • Laid-off MTA workers hope to get their jobs back
    Source: am New York
    More than 100 MTA workers laid off when the agency tightened its belt in 2010 still don't have their jobs back, and many say they will lose their unemployment benefits this week.
  • MTA says Times Square subway station floor's clean enough to eat from
    Source: NY Daily News
    The Times Square subway complex is so clean you could dine off the tiled mezzanine, a top MTA official said Tuesday.
  • Do Real-Time Updates Increase Transit Ridership?
    Source: The Atlantic Cities
    Regular riders of public transportation certainly love real-time updates — wondering when the next bus or train will actually arrive is, after all, the biggest headache of traveling by transit — but it's easy to think of them as a pleasant tool for existing users, as TRB suggests. Something that keeps riders riding, in other words. If the updates turned out to be effective points of attraction to new riders, that seems just like icing on the cake.
  • Subways from midtown north will shut down during overnight hours next year for repairs
    Source: NY Daily News
    Part of MTA's program called Fastrack that shuts down chunks of rail lines for overnight repairs.
  • MTA To Provide Every Subway Station With "Help Point" Intercom
    Source: NY1
    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has moved ahead with a new emergency intercom system for every subway station, to either give directions or send along police or medical assistance. NY1's Transit reporter Tina Redwine filed the following report.
  • Union members lobby against new pension tier
    Source: Albany Watch

    Pensions were the topic of choice for nearly 2,000 AFSCME public-service employees who were in Albany today to lobby lawmakers. Many wore stickers or had signs opposing Tier 6, a new pension tier proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Tier 6, which would be less generous than current pensions, would apply only to future state employees.
  • Proposed NY MTA hikes won’t Pay for Service Upgrades
    Source: Transportation Nation
    The NY MTA told New York City Council’s Transportation Committee today that its proposed fare hike next year will bring in about $400 million, and none of it will likely be spent on service enhancements. The MTA plans a 7.5% increase in fares and tolls next year and again in 2015.
  • Service may end for last five stops on G train
    Source: Metro NY
    Save the G! That’s the rallying cry heard in Brooklyn these days, as hundreds of straphangers are pressuring the MTA to keep service at the last five southbound G train stops in Brooklyn.
  • Gov's plan hits bump
    Source: NY Daily News
    Cuomo’s plan to drastically cut the cost of public-employee pensions this year is in danger.

March 6, 2012

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