From the NY Post:About 110 bus routes will be eliminated or reduced and the W and V lines will vanish after the MTA board approved a massive slew of service cuts today, ushering in longer wait times and less options for millions of straphangers.
In all, 87 local routes and 23 express routes will be affected.
The V line will be eliminated, and the M will be rerouted on its old route in Manhattan and Queens to replace it.
The W is also eliminated, and the Q will replace it in Astoria. N service will switch to local stops in Manhattan.
The G will be cut to stop at Court Sq. at all times.
"Letter" subway lines and the 1 line will run about 2 minutes slower on the weekends.
As many as 18 more riders will have to cram onto trains, which will slow the 1, 7, A, L, F, and J lines.
MTA officials and board members said they have no choice but to make the cuts.
The budget shortfall was caused by Gov. Paterson's reductions in direct aid and state bean counters miscalculating how much tax revenues would come to the agency.
14 comments:
Off topic:
Crappy, you'd better put Queen's Crap up for sale, real fast!
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/
2010/03/24/blogonomics-the-gothamist-sale/
The MTA has no accountability. They can do whatever they want and the people have to take it. Try to walk and bike to work. Car pool. Show the MTA that we're not going to roll over and take this. Make them cut their executive salaries.
To be fair to the MTA, the State stole $143 million in dedicated MTA tax revenue and put it into the State's general fund to address its own problems.
The M means shorter trains in queens.
http://ltvsquad.com/Blog/?p=494
Ok, everyone, let's try in Sesame-speak: V will Vanish, W is Whacked. Z is spared from Zapper, M will make a Merger.
I suggest to save money, they could shorten the Q45 bus route to Alas Mall by returning to the original destination of Elliot Ave. This would cut the route by 50% increase frequency of service and eliminate the portion of the route that is only 2% occupied.
Anonymous: The M means shorter trains in queens.
Well, the Orange M is going to be exactly as long as the current Brown M, so riders in Middle Village and Ridgewood, Queens, will see no differance at all. Now it is true that the V is currently 600 feet long and will have to be reduced to 480. That's two 60 foot cars. Now that's hardly ideal (ideal would be all the various lines sharing the same standardized rolling stock) but, since the V has never run at capacity this shouldn't be disasterous. It'll get a little more snug, no doubt, but it won't turn into Lexington Ave.
The real question is headways and whether the Brown M's current 10 minute headways (some of the longest in the system) will be reduced. If not, THAT could lead to some bad crowding.
Bloomberg and Albany have diverted more like close to 200 million allocated for the MTA which is no surprise since its always fluctuating over the last 30 years with the blame game by the state doing their best to not pay their part. Sure the MTA has problems but nothing compared to these fools in NY state running things.
If airlines were not subsidized people would pay triple for a airline ticket and if beef was not federally subsidized in would be $48.00 a pound.
The data on the beef industry is out there to find easily.
"The G will be cut to stop at Court Sq. at all times."
What does this mean? Rephrase please.
'M' is the 'Mathews' line connecting Mathews Model Flats in Ridgewood, Astoria, and Elmhurst.
Cool.
M is also for Metropoitian Ave and for Middle Village.
Glad they kept the letter.
I also agree that 10min between trains AT RUSH HOUR has always been a joke.
Didn't I just pay a fare increase to NOT have the serivce cut?
What happened to Ratovich's plan?
Anony2: What happened to Ratovich's [sic] plan?
Well, the Ravitch plan was only partially implimented. The fares were raised, yes. And the Legislature enacted the Regional Mobility Tax but not the tolls on the East River bridges that Ravitch called for. But the mobility tax didn't bring in nearly as much as had been expected and budgeted for. And then the state diverted a large chunk of it to the general fund. Combine that with the effects of the recession which have depressed the real estate market, and with it the real estate transfer taxes that are earmarked for the MTA. And it didn't really help that a court ordered a series of raises for the TWU over the next few years. So that's why we're where we're at, more or less.
The folks over at Streetsblogs have done a couple of short article about Albany literally stealing MTA money. You can read them HERE and HERE. Apparently Albany has taken money collected in our region, earmarked for the MTA, and distributed it to transit agencies upstate. I've said it before and I'll say it again: The STATE of New York is NOT a good idea.
Got it - thank you for the response.
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