Sunday, June 27, 2010

MTA Service Cuts Take Effect; Now What?

The MTA service cuts have taken effect this weekend, including the elimination of two subway routes and dozens of bus routes in an attempt to cut costs while the MTA faces a nearly $1 billion deficit.

For riders, it is a mess, and service cuts means that some riders will have much longer commutes to and from work and greater inconveniences. Fare hikes are out of the question for the moment, but the MTA should face even greater scrutiny in coming years.

The MTA is in the process of expanding the 7 line and building the Second Avenue subway. Those are significant expansions to the MTA subway system - and yet one has to wonder if there's any money in the budget to actually operate those lines. If the MTA can't afford the system it has, how can it afford the expanded system?

No doubt that riders will demand the MTA open and operate the 2d Avenue line when it is supposed to be completed in 2016. But where will that money come from?

That is the multibillion dollar question.

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