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Expected Federal Relief For MTA Will Avert "Drastic Service Cuts"
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Mar 9, 2021
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By
Stephen Nessen
Published Mar 9, 2021
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With Democrats’ passage of the $2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill in the Senate over the weekend, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ensured that it included $6.5 billion for the MTA. While that sum is still short of the $8 billion the MTA projected it would need to get through 2024, the agency expects it’s enough to stave off the worst doomsday scenarios it had been projecting as recently as December.
“We will avoid drastic service cuts on subways, buses, Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road as a result of this federal funding in President Biden's American Rescue Plan, and we also will avoid layoffs and furloughs of thousands of our colleagues,” MTA Chairman Pat Foye said Monday morning, speaking on WCBS. “It's great news for MTA customers and employees.”
Foye’s comments came on the same morning that saw Long Island Railroad customers fuming as planned service cuts went into effect Monday, causing crowding on trains during the morning rush. The MTA said it would add trains during the morning commute on Tuesday to correct for the problems, but some riders said crowded trains were still an issue.
Ridership across MTA properties remains far below pre-pandemic levels, although there are signs that subway and bus ridership is ticking slowly up.
Calls for the MTA to resume 24-hour service are only intensifying, now that federal relief aid is in sight and vaccinations are increasing, while infection rates are gradually decreasing.
“We're looking forward to bringing back 24-hour service as soon as we can,” Foye said Monday. While not a definitive promise, his comment is an upgrade from last month’s claim of “no timeline” for a return of 24-hour service.
Like the unspecified time frame for restoring full service, fare hikes are also looming in the hazy future. The MTA delayed a vote on fare hikes in January, but didn’t specify when they would be voted on again.
Many board members are calling for the MTA to not burden riders with a fare hike in 2021.
“I’m certainly for delaying the fare increases as late as possible,” Bob Linn, an MTA Board member representing New York City, told Gothamist/WNYC.
Board member David Jones, who also represents the city, said he would vote against a fare hike until New York City’s unemployment level has decreased. At the end of 2020, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in NYC was 11.4%, an increase of 7.8% from December 2019.
The MTA has simply said it will reevaluate the proposed fare hikes in the future.
With the federal government expected to make up for the MTA’s fare box and tax shortfalls, many board members are also calling for a swift return to delayed capital projects, like improvements to signals and accessibility. But the head of construction projects at the MTA said the agency will “thaw” projects as federal funds become available.
“The MTA is prime time to do a lot of the capital work that interferes with service,” board member Norman Brown wrote to Gothamist/WNYC. “Never got the signals done, I hate to think they never will,” he said.
And with federal relief in sight, more than 30 advocacy groups and watchdog organizations have signed a letter to the New York State legislature, asking them to restore what they call “budget raids on dedicated transit funds.” The groups claim the governor’s budget would transfer $160 million of dedicated MTA money to the state’s general fund.
“Dedicated funds are created by the legislature for specific purposes,” said Rachael Fauss, with the good government watchdog group Reinvent Albany. “It’s a breach of trust when funds that the legislature created for one purpose go to something else, because when New Yorkers pay these taxes they expect that they’re going to fund transit service, not to support something else in the state budget.”
When the state legislature passed congestion pricing, it also passed two other revenue streams for the MTA, the internet sales tax and a mansion tax, which were supposed to support the agency’s modernization efforts through what was once the largest capital plan in MTA history.
The MTA and state say the state needs the funds because of the pandemic, but Fauss argues not all agencies saw budget reductions like these.
She is also calling on lawmakers to restore $500 million in MTA funds that were withheld in 2020 due to decreases in state funding at all city agencies.
“There shouldn’t be any sense that the MTA gets this windfall of federal money so then the state can reduce its own commitment, that’s still unacceptable,” Fauss said.
Tagged
we the commuters
MTA
subway
Budget cuts
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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