Talk Bronx New York

M.T.A. Cuts Delay Some Big Projects Until 2010

The subway station at Smith and Ninth Streets is one of 15 in Brooklyn that will not be renovated as scheduled. Four stations in the Bronx also will wait.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority released a cascade of grim financial assessments on Monday that mean delays in subway station renovations and other major improvements, as well as possible cutbacks in service and increases in fares and tolls.

In a series of public meetings of authority board committees, officials said the authority would be forced to cut projects valued at $2.7 billion from its 2005-9 capital spending program, largely because of soaring costs on construction projects already under way.

The projects being cut include 19 subway station renovations and important projects for the modernization of subway signals and repair facilities. The authority’s chief executive, Elliot G. Sander, said those projects were expected to be included in the authority’s next five-year spending plan, which begins in 2010. But he acknowledged that the authority did not yet know how it would find the financing for that plan.

Officials also said the revenues from taxes on real estate transactions, which have buoyed the day-to-day operations of the transit system in recent years, were falling off at an alarming rate, resulting in a shortfall this year of $122 million. Revenues from the real estate taxes are on track to end the year about $280 million below budget projections.

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Fare Hike Likely To Pull MTA From Shambles

Mayor Bloomberg warned Friday that straphangers could face another fare hike next year - and said the city is broke and can’t help.

The mayor also said the MTA’s construction plan is in “shambles,” and he slammed state lawmakers for sinking his congestion pricing plan - which would have raised transit money.

“I think there is a very good likelihood that we are going to have to face the issue of a fare increase or something else,” Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show. “The city doesn’t have any money to give. We are out of money.”

The Daily News reported Friday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s projected 2009 operating budget deficit has ballooned.

Part of the problem is the tanking economy resulting in dramatically declining revenues the authority gets from fees on certain real estate transactions.

The state Legislature and Gov. Paterson also slashed funds the MTA was anticipating from one account.

Although fares went up in March, the mayor said there are bargains for riders. Senior citizens pay half fare and unlimited-ride passes reduce the per-trip cost. One acquaintance, the mayor said, pays about 46 cents a trip.

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign, who has criticized the state and city for what he sees as inadequate financial support, said the mayor “should be proposing ways to prevent a fare hike for the second year in a row, rather than falsely lecturing riders that they are already getting a bargain.”

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who helped defeat the pricing plan and voted against fully funding the MTA’s 2008 operating budget, said the Assembly took a “courageous” stand.

It passed a slight tax increase on millionaires to raise transit funds. Gov. Paterson and Senate Republicans opposed the plan and it died.

Brodsky said he will preside over an emergency Assembly committee hearing next week on the MTA’s fiscal crises.

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

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Buses Bloom In The Bronx

Bx12 Select buses greeted attendees of the “Buses in the Boroughs” symposium Tuesday morning.

With spring colors and fragrance in full bloom at the New York Botanical Garden Tuesday morning, TSTC along with Transportation Alternatives, the Straphangers Campaign, and the Pratt Center for Community Development hosted a symposium on bus rapid transit to showcase how this transit option has transformed major cities around the world and to preview New York’s plans for BRT throughout the five boroughs.

Walter Hook and Oscar Edmundo Diaz, both of the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy, discussed BRT systems in nearly two dozen cities around the world (both presentations are available on TSTC’s website). Hook’s presentation spanned multiple systems and highlighted some technical “dos and don’ts” for BRT providers (such as the advantages of median bus lanes, the need for multiple-door buses, how to fit BRT into narrow streets, etc.). His presentation drew on the broad and detailed knowledge of ITDP, which consults governments around the world in planning BRT systems and produces an 850-page BRT Planning Guide.

Diaz, a native of Colombia and a specialist in urban transport systems, focused on what many consider the world’s most successful BRT system, the TransMilenio of Bogota, Colombia. TransMilenio can carry up to 42,000 passengers per hour per direction and travels an average 18.1 mph, more than twice as fast as the average bus in NYC. It is top-of-the-line BRT, with pre-boarding fare collection, level boarding at platforms, and enclosed stations — a worthy transit system for a city of 7 million. Of course, the quickest way to get a sense of TransMilenio is through pictures:

Clockwise from top left: TransMilenio in dense urban areas, level boarding between bus and station platform, fare collection at turnstiles (not on the bus), interior of a TransMilenio bus.

Diaz emphasized how a well-built system can dramatically improve the lives of commuters and residents who lack transit access, and as a result, economic and social opportunity. While 21% of TransMilenio riders own cars, the system is also accessible to low-income commuters, mothers with children in tow, the handicapped, and the elderly. In surveys, the #1 reason TransMilenio riders said they liked the system was because it allowed them to spend more time with their families. Read more..

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