MTA Postpones Evening 1 Service Upgrades Amid Financial Woes

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently announced that it would postpone proposed service upgrades on a number of subway and bus lines, including the 1, C, and E trains, due to an unforeseen lack of revenue. The announcement came just a month after a $360 million fare hike took effect March 2—raising questions of why the MTA remained short on funds even after the hike was passed—and sparked significant discontent among riders who said the MTA was reneging on a promise it had made to soften the blow of the contentious fare increase.

The MTA’s financial woes were compounded April 7 when the New York State Assembly killed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan in committee, choosing not to bring it to the floor for a full assembly vote. With the defeat of the plan—which would have charged $8 for cars and $21 for trucks entering Manhattan below 60th Street on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.—the city forfeited $354 million in federal funding for transit improvements, and $4.5 billion total in revenue.

The MTA now stands $15 billion short of full financial solvency, and the promised upgrades—which included increased evening service on the 1 line—have been cast into further doubt.

According to MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan, the upgrades—which included increased evening service, trains that are both longer and have a larger capacity, and several new or extended bus routes—have been postponed for at least three months, and officials will “re-evaluate the feasibility” of the changes in June.

“We still hope to do them, but we want to really double-check our revenue stream before we make a decision either way,” Donovan said.

While Donovan acknowledged that the defeat of congestion pricing and the resulting loss of revenue contributed to the MTA’s financial crisis, he noted that the proposed service enhancements would be funded by the MTA’s operating budget, which is separate from the capital budget—the fund primarily hurt by the loss of congestion pricing.

“It certainly doesn’t make things easier,” Donovan said.

However, Columbia students expressed little reaction to the announcements.

“It doesn’t really affect me,” one student said, and several others echoed that sentiment.

“It does kind of suck that they were going to do it and now they aren’t,” Jill Serpa, CC ’10, said. “It [the 1 train] takes a while to come in the evening and you just want to get home.” Nonetheless, she said she understood the MTA’s position and was not unduly bothered by the relative infrequency of evening service.

maggie.astor@columbiaspectator.com