Would you rather Subway service cut or fare raised? (New York: closing, living)

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by FreshFresh

Who really needs to ride the subway during 3-5 AM on a daily basis???

C'MON!!!

I can tell you from personal experience (I was a conductor for five and a half years) that there are plenty of people who need the subway during those hours. I used to work a run on the F train out of Coney Island, and by the time that train reached downtown Brooklyn, you would've had a tough time getting a seat.

[checkmatechamp13]

Originally Posted by SobroGuy

At this point I want to avoid the fare being raised again. And if possible, I would actually prefer closing the subway from 3-5am (for example, it can be 2-4am or something similar) to save money/clean and maintain the station rather than cut any regular service or raise the fare.

I am willing to be without the train for a couple hours at the dead of night and just take a cab or make alternate arrangements. What do you think?

I would rather the MTA eliminate all unnecessary services, and if they can't fill the gap with that, then they should raise the fare.

For example, in my neighborhood, there are buses running down Richmond Avenue every 3 minutes or so during rush hour. If they reduced the service to operate every 5-6 minutes, that would reduce the peakff-peak ratio, and reduce costs.

I also think that the MTA should be trying to maximize ridership on express bus routes, by offering off-peak discounts to, again, reduce the peakff-peak ratio (say, lower the off-peak fare to $4.50). A lot of express routes run virtually empty off-peak because nobody wants to wait an hour for a bus when the local bus that brings them to the subway runs every 10 minutes.

Out of all of the service reductions that were made in June, I think that these were the only ones that shouldn't have been made:

The elimination of the X16, X18, and X29

The elimination of the X37/X38 (they are being brought back this summer)

The elimination of the weekend Bx34 (the Bx16 should've been extended to Fordham Road all times as a replacement)

The elimination of the B71 (it should've been extended to South Ferry to increase ridership)

The elimination of the eastern section of the B4 and B64

The elimination of the B39 (it should've been combined with either the M15 short-turns or the B24)

The elimination of the weekend B24 (it should've been split at Woodside and had the southern portion combined with the B39)

The elimination of the southern portion of the M98.

The elimination of the weekend M50

The elimination of the weekend Q31

The elimination of the Saturday Q76

The elimination of the Q79.

While this may seem like a long list, most of the service reductions were justified ridership-wise.

[lhf1979]

one thing I'd like would be a monthly express bus unlimited card. I never understood why they had the weekly and not the monthly for the express bus.

[Nyc77]

As someone who delt with international investors (Europe) for 5 years I to can tell you that PLENTY of people need the subway between 3 and 5am. I was on that train m-f prior to that time period along with plenty of construction workers and other people coming home and going to work. Thats what makes our system great, we can hop on it at all times

[shmacked]

Originally Posted by FreshFresh

Who really needs to ride the subway during 3-5 AM on a daily basis???

C'MON!!!

You obviously don't live here...

[Kefir King]

How could they POSSIBLY cut services? By letting the place get even DIRTIER? By having trains run LESS OFTEN on time? Would the M train run only for 6 hours per week? Can they pile more garbage onto the tracks and still have trains able to plow through?

I would thing think the only way service could deteriorate is if they started killing passengers.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by SobroGuy

At this point I want to avoid the fare being raised again. And if possible, I would actually prefer closing the subway from 3-5am (for example, it can be 2-4am or something similar) to save money/clean and maintain the station rather than cut any regular service or raise the fare.

I am willing to be without the train for a couple hours at the dead of night and just take a cab or make alternate arrangements. What do you think?

Let me impart a tiny little secret: eliminating 24-hour service isn't going to prevent any fare increases. That would just be playing MTA's game; the fare would go up AND service cut back.

Instead of moping around about what might happen, people should be bombarding their congressmen and senators with demands not to allow any such thing. Pressure from politicians is the only thing the MTA Board understands short of nuclear weapons.

[Nyc77]

Sad thing is I know a couple of MTA workers, and they all say the same thing

"if you guys only knew what we do to get our overtime." I guess a lot of sitting on the clock and "face time." and its sad, one said whenever he is about to go on vacation, "face time," when he was going to buy a car, "face time." Build up down payment for house "face time."

Its sickening, and when they retire service will have more cuts because of wasted $$$ and they will leave to Florida or Phoenix or some other car friendly place..smh

[Abe Vigoda]

Where is the option to cut the salaries of the top MTA executives? The MTA is a bottomless money pit.

[FOReverxpeace]

Raise the fare, as bad as it sounds. You need consistency and when the only train that comes ones every 15 minutes leaves, you are screwed for work. Plus, NYC is already overpopulating and more people means waiting for the next one.