Still Want Your MTA Discounts?

Subway-station maintenance workers have been diverted to cleaning jobs even as stations deteriorate, officials of the main transit workers union charged yesterday.
"They should take them and start them working on stations like this," Transport Workers Union official Ed Watt said at the Dyckman Street stop on the No. 1 train.

The above-ground station in upper Manhattan has a rotting roof, a crumbling platform and lots of peeling paint.

But members of TWU Local 100 say 177 workers assigned to maintain stations have been reassigned to cleaning jobs.

It's not often that I'll find myself in agreement with TWU Local 100, but in this instance, they're right - deferring maintenance is a dangerous folly. Deferred maintenance may seem like a cost-cutting measure, but the costs multiply exponentially as problems that are overlooked grow worse. What could be prevented by routine maintenance and things like painting, grow into major rehabilitation projects because of water damage, rotting, and deterioration of infrastructure.

Keep that in mind as you have your half fare for a week at the end of the year.