Gawker 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 3:54 AM
Fri Dec 18
46 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip Your Editors:
Tipline: 646-214-8138
Editor-in-Chief:
Gabriel Snyder |
West Coast Editor:
Richard Rushfield |
Contributing Editors:
Valleywag:
Ryan Tate |
Media:
Hamilton Nolan |
Politics:
Alex Pareene |
Investigations:
John Cook |
Entertainment:
Brian Moylan |
Nights:
Adrian Chen |
Azaria Jagger |
Ravi Somaiya |
Weekends:
Foster Kamer |
Video Editor:
Richard Blakeley |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
12/14/09
The people that use the subway the most - and especially the people that actually use it from and to far-flung stations that aren't heavily trafficked and aren't therefore very cost-effective to keep open - should be the ones bearing the brunt of the costs. That seems only fair to me.
Yes, cue the progressive argument that this will mostly impact the disadvantaged, and etc. etc. The problem with that argument is that you're basically arguing that the subway is an entitlement program, which it isn't. And it's not treated that way in any other advanced nation that I know of.
Yes, the NYC subway is underfunded compared to other nations, but those same other nations require their riders to actually pay for the distance they travel. And you can't pick and choose which arguments you make when comparing different systems around the world (as the original post does).
12/15/09
What they should do is raise the rate and to help offset it, offer a tax incentive for those who buy metrocards -- it'd help satisfy the mayor's bullshit green initiative and perhaps make a rate hike easier to stomach...
12/14/09
Even now if I miss the train, I can end up waiting 15 to 30 minutes. There's often some additional delay, stretching what in the day is a 30-minute ride into an hour.
And I'm one of the lucky ones; I know many people who are traveling to the Bronx, and far-flung Brooklyn and Queens. It takes them two to three hours to get home.
What happened to the non-peak discount plan?
12/14/09
12/15/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
It's the City Hall Station. It opened in 1904.
[www.forgotten-ny.com]
[images.google.com]
12/14/09
12/15/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/15/09
Then again ask me on a weekend when the F train in running on the A line (again) and there's no way to transfer to the J because the J doesn't run past Chambers on the weekend...
12/15/09
My grief was not with the type or quality of work of the MTA workforce or the jobs they perform; I do not envy those that work on the tracks through the wee hours of the night every night. I was simply making the point that raises in any industry, from construction to clerical, from sanitation to services, are pretty much totally nonexistent given the current deflationary environment. To that end, it does seem a bit much to ask those of us who are earning the same, or even less, these days to share in the burden of a substantial compensation increase granted in isolation to a protected monopoly.
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/15/09
12/15/09
C'mon, MTA.
12/14/09
Oh wait, don't do that. Unless you're willing to risk death. Who needs bike lanes, those are for pansies and commuters. Lame!
Good work, NYC.
12/14/09
When I was a teenager I used to ride a bike from one of the outer boroughs into Manhattan. It was scary: Malicious drivers, oil slicks, leering car passengers. Besides, what do you do in the rain? The snow? Late at night? If you have a lot of equipment? In college, my bike was stolen. I can't imagine that a nice bike would do better on a NYC street today.
I'm pro-bike, but it's not a realistic solution for an adult (especially an adult woman) who has to travel in all weathers and all hours.
12/14/09
Etc.
12/14/09
To answer your question, the fare-increase story obviously vanished because Rupert Murdoch and his fat cat pals said so.
To address the issue seriously:
The NYC subways suck because fares are too low and their legacy infrastructure is inefficient and outdated. Sure, waste, fraud and abuse are all issues, like with any major public agency. However, far more significant is the structural problem of old, slow track that was built by once-competing private corporations that were taken over by Mayor La Guardia for exactly the reason you describe: to stick it to the fat cats and increase the people power. By the way, that's really worked out great, hasn't it? This problem isn't going away since it would take many billions of dollars to rebuild and rationalize the track system.
Even more problematically, fares can't increase to a sustainable level because people like you complain too much and are opposed to sensible, variable pricing.
In short, New York gets exactly the subway system it pays for thanks to retard bleeding hearts like you and Fiorello LaGuardia.
The world would be a much better place if liberals were actually as smart as you think you are.
[/Hops onto the Kubrick-on-acid-radical-moon-monorail-inspired DC Metro and zooms off, only to die in a collision because yet another engineer was sleeping or texting at the switch.]
#trainnerd
12/14/09
Bye!
12/14/09
the subways failed as a profit-making venture, which is why the damn city took them over to begin with, and it was all very popular and successful back when it was HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED in the '50s and '60s.
the decline happened because of Reagan and Pataki, not because of fucking LAGUARDIA.
12/15/09
Are you sure you don't want to add Giuliani to that rogue's gallery?
12/14/09
Our bus lines (and the busses themselves) are clean, reliable, and frequent, and my car only stops running when I'm too lazy to put gas in it.
12/14/09
so let's not.
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/15/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
Well, guess what? Pataki is gone and payments on that debt are now a big reason why they MTA is in the hole. But corporations still reap the benefit of those tax cuts, year after year after year. Pataki gave to the rich and took from the poor.
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
And there doesn't need to be more demand at rush-hour - mandated flex-time, allowing people to arrive to work between say 6 am and 10 am, would help a lot also. But, once again, employers find that inconvenient....
The subway system is not a commuting system, the way Metro-North is. It's the way people get around the place they live, for work and for fun. Turning it into something that only acknowledges the work portion of people's lives impoverishes all other aspects of NYC life.
12/14/09
The subway does serve a variety of purposes, I agree with you there... but I bet most of its revenue comes from commuters during business hours. There is a reason MTA runs more trains then. I don't think it is to screw poor people - I think it is to serve as many people as efficiently as possible.
That is all.
12/14/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
Do you mean Sheldon Silver? Who exchanges huge law firm fees for favors in Albany? That snake has done more harm to New York than every other politician in the State put together.
12/07/09