By Philip Newman
Millions of straphangers await a legislative rescue plan, without which MTA officials warn the city transit system could begin a slide toward an era of breakdowns and chaos, such as it experienced 30 years ago.
Gov. David Paterson said Tuesday that any solution to aid the MTA will not include tolls on East and Harlem river bridges.
“The Senate has really eliminated what my choice would be, which is to have the tolls,” he said. “That being the case, then we’re going to have to try to find alternative ways to come up with several hundred millions of dollars that would replace the revenue provided by the tolls.”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted 12−1 last week to raise basic subway and bus fares by 50 cents to $2.50 and impose service cuts in the face of a $1.2 billion budget gap. Only board member Norman Seabrook of the Bronx voted “no.”
But some said things could get even worse.
Wall Street rating agency Moody’s warned that the MTA might soon face more difficulty and higher costs in borrowing money.
“No less than the future of the MTA and the region is at stake,” MTA Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger told the March 25 board meeting. “Every single person who rides or uses the system will be affected. That’s how bad it is.”
Board member Andrew Albert said the service cuts amounted to far more than fat−cutting.
“It [is] now cutting into bone,” Albert said. “This is going to make New York a very different place and not a better place.”
The fare increases would take effect May 31, with commuter rail hikes June 1 and bridge and tunnel increases June 11.
The state Legislature has been occupied with hammering out a budget before the midnight Tuesday deadline, with that always contentious task taking precedence over rescuing the city transit system.
Angry Queens transit riders have called the borough’s state senators in recent days to urge them to stop the MTA’s doomsday budget from taking effect.
Without any legislative action, transit officials said, they would have to impose a list of crippling service cutbacks, including shutting down the W and Z subway lines while shortening others and ending 22 bus lines as well as nearly stopping service on some lines overnight. The cuts would also mean 3,000 fewer jobs, including 1,100 MTA layoffs.
Transit fares would also rise as much 27 percent on buses and subways, including a base fare of $2.50, up from $2. A 30−day unlimited ride MetroCard would go from $81 to $103.
The G and N lines would be shortened, with the G ending at Court Square. Some nighttime stops would be eliminated on the N line in the financial district and downtown Brooklyn.
The Q26, Q56, Q74, Q75 and Q84 buses would be scrapped. Weekend service would be stopped on the Q14, Q31, Q76, Q79 and Q84 and hours of service would be shortened on the Q42, Q48 andQ79.
Long Island Rail Road fares would rise from 24 percent to 29 percent.
Many subway stations would be closed, with many others empty of station agents.
MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander said that with no legislative help, the agency might have to discuss at its next board meeting in late April the possibility of even more cuts in transit service.
Transit officials said that under that worst−case scenario, the service cuts would likely continue, sending the system sliding toward the kind of dire straits into which it slipped in the late 1970s with deferred maintenance and resulting service breakdowns, dirty cars, dubious dependability and declining passenger numbers.
The Ravitch Commission, appointed by Paterson to come up with a rescue plan recommended tolls on 13 East River and Harlem River bridges and the 12−county payroll tax. But the tolls have been strongly opposed in the state Senate, where Democrats have a one−seat majority but perhaps as many as six oppose the bridge tolls. Republicans are united in opposition.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e−mail at news@timesledger.com or phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 136.
