The MTA is considering challenging an arbitration panel’s decision to grant transit workers generous wage hikes, officials said Friday.
A state judge can throw out a contract after concluding arbitrators didn’t properly apply the criteria mandated by the legislation, including an employer’s ability to pay wages and benefits.

The pact grants transit workers staggered annual raises totaling 4%, 4% and 3.5% over the three-year contract.
MTA officials said it would increase costs by $350 million.

The major provisions in the contract crafted by the arbitrators mirror the terms supported last year by MTA CEO Elliot Sander and NYC Transit President Howard Roberts before direct talks with union boss Roger Toussaint ended and the two sides turned to arbitration to finalize a deal. Sander resigned in May.

The MTA under acting CEO Helena Williams tried unsuccessfully to steer the panel away from the framework supported by Sander and Roberts, concluding it spelled a bad financial deal for the authority, even if it included removing conductors from some subway lines.

A union spokesman said the MTA’s legal review is “another attempt by the MTA to mask its incompetence.”

I am always shocked at how difficult it is to use the NYC subway with a stroller.

Please share with us your plan for how to keep the “plain old exits” exit-only?

What is the benefit of requiring people to exit through the faregates? It just creates conflicts between people who are exiting and people who are entering.

The alarms on the emergency exits are the transit equivalent of car alarms. They go off so frequently that everyone just ignores them. They are just a nuisance that it would be very easy to eliminate.

Others may disagree, but I think that’s exactly the MTA’s function as a public transit agency. Premium rides are the job of private enterprise.

Prosecutors are bound to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the negligence meets the court’s definition of what is criminal because according to case law “negligent conduct arising from carelessness, inadvertence, lack of skill, competence or foresight — would not be a sufficient.”

That doesn’t explain the phone thing, though; maybe he wasn’t making a call at the time of the crash?

And all Bloomberg has to say is “I don’t know whether he was talking and I don’t know whether it would have prevented the accident?”

The mayor who won’t let us eat transfats needs to implement a zero-tolerance policy against distracted driving. How many deaths are too many?

The express bus is a luxury service; it’s not like there’s no other option. The MTA is not obligated to provide a cheap ride to every hidden corner of the 5 boroughs.