New York Reels Over MTA Cuts

MYFOXNY.COM - The MTA board has approved its 2010 doomsday budget. It includes service cuts and could leave New York City children without free rides to their public schools if it is implemented.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the nation's largest transportation agency, is facing a $383 million budget shortfall.

"Because the MTA's transit system matters so much to New Yorkers, when $400 million is taken from the budget practically overnight you have to make the kinds of changes that have an enormous impact on people," said MTA Chairman and CEO Jay Walder. "We have a responsibility to assure our customers and taxpayers that every dollar they send to the MTA is used as effectively as possible. We can't say that today, and that is why we have to fundamentally change the way that we do business."

The MTA will hold public hearings and vote again. That leaves an opening for an 11th-hour rescue by the city or the state. The policy of free or discounted student rides has been in place since 1948. Ending it could cost half a million students nearly $1,000 per year in transportation fees.

New York City Council Member Bill de Blasio from Brooklyn's 39th District said, "The MTA's vote today could very well result in students missing school because their families can't afford the extra cost of a metro card. We cannot place such an unfair burden on low income students and their families in the middle of a recession."

Official numbers show that 417,243 students receive free Metrocards and another 167,912 get half-fare cards.

The cards can be used on schooldays between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. and are good for three rides a day — to school, to one after-school activity and then home.

The new budget would have students start paying half fares in September 2010 and full fares in September 2011.

The MTA was recently socked with an extra $100 million in expenses after a New York State Court judge sided with the Transport Workers Union that guaranteed TWU workers 11 percent wage increases over the next three years.

The MTA plans to cut salaries for non-union employees by 10 percent.

Hearings will be scheduled In the coming weeks before a final vote on the cuts.

The Straphangers Campaign, an advocacy group, issued a statement saying, "Like the MTA hearings on service cuts last winter, we expect the hearings will be packed and vociferous, with parents, educators and students adding their concerns.  There are alternatives to propose."

The MTA also plans to:

• Discontinue W and Z subway routes; terminate G subway route at Court Street
• Increase subway headways on weekends and early mornings; increase off-peak subway load guidelines
• Adjust express bus service to reflect demand and eliminate low performing weekend express bus service
• Discontinue and restructure local bus service on low-performing routes
• Eliminate Rockaway-resident Cross Bay toll-rebate program
• Reduce car consists and increase load standards
• Reduce service on commuter railroads
• Reduce Access-A-Ride service to meet ADA minimum standards.

Fox 5 did an investigation in November questioning some elements of the $500,000 Access-A-Ride program.