Comments on: Fuel Costs, Declining Revenues Slam MTA. Will Anyone Face the Facts?

By: MS

MS — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:45:31 +0000

Regarding the #7 extension:

The City has budgeted $2.1 billion for this project. The MTA would probably get hit with cost overruns, which will be significant considering that construction costs have skyrocketed since the budget was drawn up. Removing the #7 from the MTA's plans would relieve the MTA of its worries about cost overruns but would not do anything about the current deficit.

By: Be

Be — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:45:23 +0000

If we would abandon the idiotic 7-extension to an area that is mostly unpopulated, and is essentially a give-away to real estate speculators/developers then we'd have a lot more money freed up for the rest of the system and for the speedy completion of the Second Ave subway, which will serve hundreds of thousands of residents in the Bronx and the East side of Manhattan (which is not mostly populated by rich people who only take cabs!!!!)

By: MS

MS — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:06:09 +0000

While it's easy to point the finger at Albany for rejecting congestion pricing, the story is a bit more complicated than that.

The MTA has two deficits: an operating deficit and a capital deficit. The operating budget pays to run the trains and buses, and it also covers payments on the debt that the MTA has borrowed over the last 25+ years to run its capital program. The MTA has a lot of debt largely because the Pataki administration cut back the state's contribution to the capital program in the 90s and early 2000s. Now the MTA and riders will be paying the price for those decisions.

The capital program has a different deficit. The five year capital program proposed by the MTA this spring had a deficit on the order of $15 billion. In that program, the MTA proposed spending $30 billion over five years for big projects like the 2nd Ave subway, the LIRR-Grand Central link, new bus rapid transit, station renovations, security upgrades, and screens that tell you when the next train is coming. But they only lined up about half the money they needed to get all that done.

Congestion pricing would have helped plug the capital program deficit. The MTA had planned to issue bonds worth about $4.5 billion based on congestion pricing. The MTA had also proposed using about $100 million annually from congestion pricing to cover the operating expenses of new service that they planned for riders switching from cars to transit. But congestion pricing would not have helped plug the $900 million operating deficit that we're now talking about.

By: Eric McClure

Eric McClure — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:45:27 +0000

I don't remember any of Bloomberg's four stooges on the MTA board raising their voices about the less-than-50%-of-the-MTA's-own-appraised-value giveaway of the Vanderbilt Railyard to Bruce C. Ratner. Et tu, Bloomy?

By: Red

Red — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:46:21 +0000

The MTA posted the presentation staff gave on the board meeting online at http://www.mta.info/mta/budget/ (at the top). Between 2007 and 2008, there's an estimated increase in fuel costs of 62% and an increase in "traction & propulsion power" of 6%. That's not as detailed a breakdown as anonymouse is looking for but it illustrated the split pretty clearly.

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:05:39 +0000

I'd like to see some numbers on how much fuel costs have gone up for the bus versus subway parts of NYCT, and perhaps the electric vs. diesel operations on the commuter rail. Maybe it's time to start considering more electrification, and maybe some streetcars, to save on operating costs?

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:58:40 +0000

After they all got together and handed out goodies to the insiders for 20 years, the goal of every pol is to get people to blame someone else for the then-deferred cost. My guess is the non-plan is to make Governor Dinkins -- er Paterson -- the fall guy, now that he has cooperated by putting off all the pain until after the election.

That's why you hear Brodsky saying the chickens are coming home to roost. Well, why did you vote yes on all that stuff, you turkey?

By: spnder

spnder — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:41:13 +0000

Well clearly the state and city are drowning in debt as well, so it's not wonder they're calling for MTA attrition first...

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:29:43 +0000

May I point out that while real estate investment sales are down in NY, in many of not most other markets they have dropped to zero. The MTA is lucky to have a $900 million deficit. It will probably get worse.

Over on the Gotham Gazette, the Working Families Party has released a tax-the-rich-only plan to raise $200 million. For everything. It's laughable.

I'll admit I've been feeling a little down lately. Maybe I should stop reading this stuff. For most people, what's coming is going to feel like being blindsided by a bus after stepping off the curve. For me it's like being tied to the subway tracks and seeing the train come from several stations away.