Would you rather Subway service cut or fare raised? (roofing, live)

[checkmatechamp13]

Originally Posted by sirtiger

i agree. dissolve mta. start fresh again.

Seemingly Veiola took over MTA's Long Island Bus with a fraction of the operating cost since April 1st of this year....I am actually ok with the overall service. For months before that, MTA employees were rightly angry & defensive saying that the whole LI bus system would crash & burn if there was no mta running it. Honestly I have yet to see that happen.

Yeah. The thing is that the MTA is very hesitant to make changes. Some of the routes running are the same as they did back in the 1920s, and haven't changed to reflect development patterns. You may see an occasional extension here or there, but in some areas, they need a massive overhaul of the system. When Veolia took over, they took traffic counts on every single bus and came up with some fairly large changes. They could've probably improved service more, except for the fact that Nassau gave them a shoestring budget. If the MTA were taken over by a private company (or a group of private companies, since it would be very hard for one company to handle transit for the entire city, not t mention the commuter railroads) and given a decent budget, we could probably see better service without fare hikes.

[L'Artiste]

i would say cut the service around a time, but this is new york, the city is always working. so as i hate to say, raise the fare

then again.. they don't have to cut the late service they could make it less frequent, but i dont know how safe that is in certain places

[bxlefty23]

they are great at wasting money


2 examples:
1)they still have an elevator operator on one or 2 of the five elevators on the 168th street 1/a station
its a complete waste of money
its even worse because the operator has a plastic partition hes in by the buttons whoch just takes up extra space so 5 or so less people can fix

2)the completely renovated the mosholu station on the 4 line a few years ago
they had put notices up for months that the station was being overhauled starting on whatever datge

a few weeks before the renovation began they had workers out there painting things that were going to be ripped out in a few weeks

when i asked a worker why they were painting something that they hadnt painted in years thaty was about to be torn out he told me the station gets a certain amount of money to spend a year and if they don't use it they get less money the next year (apparantly the money for the renovation was somehow completely separate)

[whitlock]

Raise the fare. We should know already that cutting down vital services is not the way to go. Back in 1973 when the Third Ave. elevated was dismantled that's when the whole infra-structure of the already burdened areas of Melrose, Morrisania and East Tremont came tumbling down.

[Kefir King]

I wonder why the POLL did not even CONSIDER the possibility of IMPROVING SERVICE.

Have we all gotten so jaded to accept the fact that things can only gett WORSE. Sad, even if realistic.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by sirtiger

i agree. dissolve mta. start fresh again.

Here's a thought-provoking (and little known) factoid concerning MTA:

At the time of its creation in 1965, New York City Mayor John Lindsay wasn't so sure he approved. So he held out for a little concession: he demanded the right for New York City Transit--the previously constituted agency that ran our subways and buses--to be pulled out of MTA at the city's option. In order to get the creation of MTA accomplished, Governor Rockefeller agreed to Lindsay's demand.

There must have been a private understanding that the city would never make the actual demand, because we've had several mayors in the years since who might have jumped at the opportunity--and you'd have to put Mike Bloomberg up near the top of that list.

The city has the right...but has strangely never insisted upon it.

[caribny]

Originally Posted by jacktravern

Best to shut down service between say 2 and 5. Whose really on the train at that time anyway save for bums, hooligans and young people partying. Most streets, even in Manhattan, have free parking at those hours anyway.

It might shock you to know that many in the outer boroughs who work are traveling at those hours. What time do you think many restaurant staff travel? I have seen trains in teh Bronx with standing room only at 2AM and these were mainly middled aged adults. Those who must get to work by 6AM have to leave home before 5AM.

There is rampant waste and corruption in the MTA. No one ever demands that this be fixed.

[sirtiger]

Originally Posted by bellakin123

Interesting. I found that service has not changed at all (I ride the N6). It's still horrible. .

of course I can speak only for my line n20/n21/n25. Its about the same pre mta and post mta....maybe marginally better. It seems about once a month or so, the bus has some big delays.....no bus for a while then 3 bus pile up at once. Then again the mta subway system has the same debacle with various reasons. good thing I love reading bc I have finished volumes of reading material

Overall NICE employees don't seem as surly as mta lib drivers....just my experience.

If NICE is operating the LI bus system for far less of a budget, it would only reaffirm that MTA is one giant money vortex pit into the black hole. MTA is suppose to service the public which I honestly believe they are incompetant. The answer isn't just throw more & more money as the solution.

[Lost_Boy]

The service sucks as it is and the fare is high enough. Im tired of being sandwiched into a million people. Run the trains more often and cut them off completely from 1-5am on the weekdays.

[Balljoint]

I live in Moscow, Russia now. The subway system here is not as complex as it is in New York, but it's pretty complex and it covers the entire megapolis with a population of 15 million. The trains on all lines run here every 1-2 minutes during all hours (every 4-5 minutes late at night). The fair is slightly less than one dollar. How come?