Subways are for sleeping: NYC Transit survival thread

i got a snowcaked D, so i can vouch for the absence of an F for like five minutes.

How are the buses if anyone knows?

terrorist-proof

I waited about 2 minutes for a Queens bound F train, so I guess I got lucky.

MTA claims "minor" bus delays.

wtf is this shuttle btw jay and utica bs

Dear Rider –

On March 25th, the MTA will be forced to enact a "doomsday budget" calling for 23% higher fares and existing tolls, as well as devastating service cuts!

We're asking for your help. Please call the key legislators listed below and tell them:

* You rely on transit and cannot afford a 23% fare hike – or 23% higher tolls at existing facilities;
* You are counting on them to stand up for riders; and
* The fairest way to fund transit is with all sectors of the economy fairly contributing to the solution, including riders, drivers and businesses.

Please call these key state legislators. Please be sure to leave your name and tell them what borough you live in.

If you live in the Bronx please call Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. at (718) 991-3161
If you live in Brooklyn please call Senator Carl Kruger at (718) 743-8610.
If you live in Queens please call Senator Frank Padavan at (718) 343-0255.
If you live in Staten Island please call Senator Andrew Lanza at (718) 984-4073.
If you live in Manhattan, please call any of the above.

NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign
One Click to a Better Commute - http://www.straphangers.org

it's so dumb. subways are the maybe most palpable way in which people interact with services provided by the city; if they run on time through the recession there'll be a sense of normalcy. if they cut them it will be like abandoned post-apocalyptic future new york, with street gangs and ripped denim and shivs.

http://gothamist.com/attachments/arts_jen/0309keepitgoing.jpg

so today my train actually pulled in to the 6th ave stop and then stopped like 3/4 of the way into the station, where we sat, 'delayed due to train traffic ahead of us' and 'being held momentarily by the train's dispatcher' for 15 minutes. why not just pull all the way in, open the doors, and let me transfer so i can get to work!??!!??!!??!?

more from Straphangers:

If you're among the 109,000 southern Brooklyn subway riders, be warned: your state senator, Carl Kruger, is engineering drastic fare hikes and service cuts for you.

If you're among the 123,000 southern Bronx subway riders, be warned: your senator, Ruben Diaz, is pushing you toward the same awful fate.

The same is true if you're among 111,400 subway riders in Sen. Pedro Espada's central Bronx district; 78,000 in Sen. Kevin Parker's central Brooklyn district, and 56,000 in Ruth Hassell-Thompson's northern Bronx district.

Kruger, Diaz, Espada, Parker and Hassell-Thompson have emerged as the leading opponents of rescuing the MTA from collapse by imposing a tax on payrolls and tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges.

This is the only viable plan for averting a 23% fare hike, elimination of subway and bus lines and deep subway-maintenance cuts. Gov. Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver back it because there is no choice.

Kruger, Diaz, Espada, Parker and Hassell-Thompson balk at tolls, placing the interests of a minority of drivers over the quality of life and pocketbooks of far more constituents. And none has offered a sane alternative.

They are living in a fantasyland, especially Kruger. Yesterday, he proposed a scheme that would be laughable were he not Finance Committee chairman. He'd have the state borrow billions, give the MTA a slice and put the rest in the stock market in hopes of hitting a jackpot to repay the loan. Is that how he manages his affairs?

These people need to come back to Earth.

Kruger's district, including Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay and Mill Basin, has 20 subway stops. He is on track to hammer 109,737 commuters.

Diaz's (Soundview, Hunts Point, Morrisania) has 20 stations, 123,651 riders; Parker's (Flatbush, East Flatbush) 11 stations, 77,920 riders; Espada's (Tremont, Kingsbridge, Bedford Park) 15 stations, 111,403 riders; Hassell-Thompson's (Wakefield, Baychester, Crotona Park), 12 stations, 56,389 riders.

That doesn't count constituents who use nearby stations in other districts, or tens of thousands of bus riders.

Far fewer residents use untolled bridges. In Espada's district, more than 70% don't even own cars.

Unless they change course, Kruger, Diaz, Espada, Parker and HassellThompson will inflict huge costs and inconveniences on almost a half-million subway riders in their districts. Plus hundreds of thousands of bus riders. Plus millions more citywide.

They need to see the light.

ILX must pitch in to buy dr. morbius a bike.

I have a feeling part of the problem with the tolls on bridges and etc is that a lot of city employees, including people who WORK FOR the MTA, all drive. You think many cops take the subway to work? I've been walking past the precinct house on Washington & Park Pl, and I'm guessing none of them do.

i dunno laurel i feel like i commute with cops every day

Oh hmm I dunno, then. I just have this general impression that a lot of city employees live farther out in the boroughs where it's almost suburban (or outside of the city entirely) and drive to work. I don't know where that came from, exactly.

i know what you mean, laurel. i do see a decent number of mta employees commuting via train, but never cops.

the 1 has been awful lately!!!!

ya i think most of the cops i see are coming from the far outer reaches of the A--which is almost where i am--which is probably hwy i see them

Maybe because a lot of city jobs are basically blue-collar and the people who hold them are from blue-collar families that used to live in immigrant neighborhoods closer to (or in) Manhattan but are able to make above working-class wages by being police/firemen/etc? So when they can afford to, they move their families as far from the city conditions as possible; it's like a big dream to own a house with a lawn.

I may have just read too many memoirs, though.

M.T.A. Increases Fares and Cuts Services

The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted Wednesday morning to enact a series of fare hikes and service cutbacks needed to keep the transit system from going broke.

The fare hikes on the subway and buses, including an increase in the base subway and bus fare to $2.50, from $2, will take effect May 31.

Commuter rail fares will increase June 1. Tolls on the authority’s bridges and tunnels will also go up, with the increase taking effect in mid-July.

The service cuts are far reaching. They include the elimination of 35 bus routes and two subway lines, the W and Z. Off-peak and weekend subway, bus and commuter rail service will also be cut back.

the mta board is really deserving of assassination

Off-peak and weekend subway, bus and commuter rail service will also be cut back.

Fuck the bastards

service cutbacks needed to keep the transit system from going broke.

Fuck the City Room blog

we should probably riot like the french

im into rioting and looting

Surely the NY state senate, who have blocked any attempt to raise funds by other means (tolls on east river and harlem river bridges, manhattan congestion charging etc.)

yes, off the NYSS first

jump those 'stiles

why the fuck should anyone live here if we have to wait 30-60 mins for a train on weekends?

monthly card for $103 is some BS.

ed fyi last time the mta wanted to raise rates they were caught using quasi legal accounting practices to hide a half a billion dollar surplus - they basically run their shit like a 3rd world dictatorship

tolls on the east river bridges and congestion pricing are ass ideas too - how abt we subsidies the subway like we do roads

Because the rest of the state already resents NYC and doesn't want their tax dollarses to go to public trans at all.

God willing the shitty "off-peak" cut-backs won't really affect me until November, when I stop biking for the year. That $103 unlimited is going to SUCKAGE, though.

taxing the alternative, driving into the city, will increase farebox revenue as well as subsidising the service so it is a double win. Yes the MTA is dubious but it seems the only way they can get funded is by playing chicken with Albany.

let's secede from NYS

Wasn't it outer borough dems that boned you on this one.

taxing the alternative, driving into the city, will increase farebox revenue as well as subsidising the service so it is a double win. Yes the MTA is dubious but it seems the only way they can get funded is by playing chicken with Albany.

― Prince of Persia (Ed), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:40 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

or like they could manage the resources they have better

They're just looking for reasons to complain that they should have been allowed to make another six fortunes by selling all the space over their switching/storage yards to the highest bidder, regardless of what that would mean for everyone else's quality of life.

i'm shocked at the general level of morality and decency on the comments section of that nytimes piece about the fare hikes. shocked!

why exactly is congestion charging and/or east river bridge tolling an "ass idea", ice cr?m?

theyre regressive taxes

i believe in letting things flow not billionaire mayor fiddle faddle

let's secede from NYS

― Past a Diving Jeter (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:47 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

btw ive been advocating this move for years

1) they could be crudely means-tested, i.e. if you receive medicare or medicaid you get a deal
2) they discourage car use leading to:
2a) less emissions
2b) higher average speeds in the city
3) the money can go directly to public transit, which benefits primarily the middle and working class

there's no commuter tax?!? wtf, I paid one pre-'92 from NJ.

imo its control freak anti city thinking - if u want to drive in the city fine go ahead it will be slow

the means testing seems like some serious pie in the sky shit - remind me do the do that w/the gw bridge toll

as far as earmarking funds thats a classic switchero theyll just take it out somewhere else - that shit w/the state ripping fools off through the lottery then saying look it goes towards schools drives me crazy - it doesnt go toward schools it goes into a pot called the state budget

if u can reduce emissions thats cool - obv it wouldnt be enough to affect our global environmental problems but maybe itd be enough to cut down on some of our local air quality issues i dont know

either way this approach seems overly punitive and regressive - how abt encouraging people to drive less by make public transportation better and cheaper - reduce emissions through encouraging more efficient cars

should be noted too that tolls create congestion greater emissions a traffic accidents

congestion pricing requires no physical in-car toll collection, it can all be done with cameras and credit cards

the way to make public transportation better is by raising average traffic speeds in the city - buses are a big part of public transport and if driving is slow, buses are slow

you wouldn't even have to means-test it - if the funds stayed in the transport budget and went towards more buses, subway maintenance, etc that is a direct transfer of money to the working class

taxis would obv get a break

hybrid cars and other green cars would get a break

sorta crazy that in the middle of a national financial emergency, skyrocketing unemployment numbers and general recession, all of which require massive government spending preferably on infrastructure, the city of new york is cutting services and raising fares - although i guess that's what happens when republicans block federal aid to the states

btw that just wiped out my payroll tax reduction

tracer buses dont count as they are nothing but purveyors of depression and disease - not sure how many times i have to explain this to u

they are important purveyors for late-night travel after sexin

YES WE CAN, ice cr?m

i've never had sex on a bus

btw if congestion pricing really led to a long term improvement in public transportation id grudgingly support it even tho i philosophically disagree w/its approach - id much rather see an acknowledgment that public transpo is a worthwhile thing to spend tax money on

city should replace all buses w/trams - trams are rad imo