Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Why the MTA is so bad

From the NY Times:

...the problems plaguing the subway did not suddenly sweep over the city like a tornado or a flood. They were years in the making, and they might have been avoided if decision makers had put the interests of train riders and daily operations ahead of flashy projects and financial gimmicks.

An examination by The New York Times reveals in stark terms how the needs of the aging, overburdened system have grown while city and state politicians have consistently steered money away from addressing them.

Century-old tunnels and track routes are crumbling, but The Times found that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s budget for subway maintenance has barely changed, when adjusted for inflation, from what it was 25 years ago.

Signal problems and car equipment failures occur twice as frequently as a decade ago, but hundreds of mechanic positions have been cut because there is not enough money to pay them — even though the average total compensation for subway managers has grown to nearly $300,000 a year.

Daily ridership has nearly doubled in the past two decades to 5.7 million, but New York is the only major city in the world with fewer miles of track than it had during World War II. Efforts to add new lines have been hampered by generous agreements with labor unions and private contractors that have inflated construction costs to five times the international average.

New York’s subway now has the worst on-time performance of any major rapid transit system in the world, according to data collected from the 20 biggest. Just 65 percent of weekday trains reach their destinations on time, the lowest rate since the transit crisis of the 1970s, when graffiti-covered cars regularly broke down.


Only one post today, please take the time to read the entire article. It breaks down the issue perfectly.

30 comments:

JQ LLC said...


"New York’s subway now has the worst on-time performance of any major rapid transit system in the world, according to data collected from the 20 biggest. Just 65 percent of weekday trains reach their destinations on time, the lowest rate since the transit crisis of the 1970s, when graffiti-covered cars regularly broke down."

I beat the Times to it back in April. Although not as thoroughly historic but with more vulgarities and current targeting. It actually is my most popular post. Although it's great to see paid professionals break this living wreck transit system down to it's very details.

The worst not only the world, but the fucking universe.

https://impunitycity.wordpress.com/2017/06/28/fuck-the-mta-the-worst-transit-system-in-the-universe/









Anonymous said...

'A fish stinks from the head down'. Look at the past chairman of the MTA. The amount they donate to political races seems to be more important than any experience in running a transit system. Take Eliot Spitzer's boy, H. Dale Hemmerdinger. Hemmerdinger only concern during his tenure at the MTA was to reroute 2 more bus lines to serve his properties around Atlas Park. Wouldn't be surprised if the Hemmerdingers were the money behind Dizzy Lizzy pushing that light rail idea of hers.

Anonymous said...

They were years in the making, and they might have been avoided if decision makers had put the interests of train riders and daily operations ahead of flashy projects

... and financial gimmicks?

try

... and focusing on building the Democratic Party to the detriment of New York City with money wasting welfare state programs and sanctuary city policies - and mindlessly agreeing to the whims of real estate developers without bothering to study their impact on the same New York City.

Anonymous said...

Yea, get rid of MTA, get rid of AMTARK and what?

turn it over to the true source of every problem? Albany and City Hall and the Machine.

Prostate Cancer said...



It all started with Giuliani

Anonymous said...

Hemmerdingers haven't owned Atlas for a few years now. The idiot son lost his family millions of dollars. If you feel froggy you can check the campaign finance bureau to see who donated and how much to whose campaign, but you probably won't bother, it's easier to sit back and sling shit with anything to back it up. You probably didn't bother to vote either. If that's the case STFU and thanks for four more years of BDB...

Anonymous said...

"Hemmerdingers haven't owned Atlas for a few years now."... They don't run the mall anymore but did when the bus routes were added. He is currently an owner of several properties in that area and BTW all donations don't make it to the campaign financials. I guess you Crowley supporters don't have much to do these days.

Anonymous said...

How about all the illegals that SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEPORTED? The more people there are, the more hold up of the trains there will be.

Anonymous said...

One reason is that Guv Andy , like his dad Mario, is a damn crook. He hides it under a veneer that if you peel it back reveals rotten wood!

Rob In Manhattan said...

The core problem is that the MTA (and many other agencies) are administered by Albany.

Petty businessmen and farmers in Upstate NY decide transit policy in NYC.

Without NYC money those fiefdoms up there would be one of the poorest regions in the nation.

WE are the cash cow that keeps the Upstate gop and their dying towns afloat...yet they hate us.

Without getting these leeches off our back we'll only see temporary, crisis-based "solutions" and then, back to business-as-usual.

Rob In Manhattan.

Anonymous said...

The greatest enemies of the state are the terminally 'crooked-and-corrupt' Mario's son, and even Mario himself (whose crimes against humanity continue to plague New York State long after his much earned demise). Together, they left a sordid, voracious and all consuming legacy of 'NAKED GREED,' lies, cover ups and unconscionable self-enrichment――and, the public be eternally duped, bilked, robbed, scammed, SCARRED FOR LIFE, and damned!

That's why I CORRECTLY refer to this lethally dynastic duo (as well as fellow criminal sociopaths Sheldon Silver, Dean Skelos and his adopted son, Adam), as 'CRIMES WITHOUT CRIMINALS!'

In the end, when it comes to corruption, there can be no city, state, county, region, municipality――or even country――that can rival, much less surpass, the entrenched corruption, graft and endless greed of New York State government, for which everyone else has never stopped paying a soul-crushing price (while We, the People remain in a perpetual, 'Hijack-and-Hostage' holding pattern.

❝If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.❞ ――Malcolm X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuMntvVwwWM

Anonymous said...

@Rob In Manhattan

I didn't know that DeBozo was in Albany.

JQ LLC said...

@Rob

It looks like the ski resorts decide transit policy.

I know there is a major issue regarding Trump and Congress's reviled and psychotic tax cuts and budget plan and how NY gives up more money than other states but I don't think the alleged businessmen and farmers are leeching off us and as the article shows the culprits are those tasked to keep the transit system upgraded and running efficiently and have failed the commuters.

It also shows Mario's son's micromanaging style when he was at HUD resurfaced in prioritizing MTA projects. And de Faustio's derelict approach by deferring responsibilities for the transit system to the state even though the city runs and manages it.

This article was super informative, and it's only part one, and monstrously grim.

Anonymous said...

Because Andrew is as useless as his late father, why people in NY keep electing shysters like this defy all reason

Anonymous said...

@Rob In Manhattan
Where do you think your water comes from ?
Maybe those upstate Counties don't like NYC taking billions of gallons of their water.

Anonymous said...

The MTA is getting worse because it is a union run organization. Too many illegal aliens WORK for the MTA (how much vetting is done on those from Bengla Desh or Pakistan?) ) 95% of the workforce are from the Caribbean.
They act as if the MTA is their personal plantation and they all must do as little real work as possible to give it to the massa. Observe how MTA employees treat the customers- are they trained to be rude and unprofessional? The MTA employees that I have had the misfortune to live near were always unhappy, angry bad neighbors.

Anonymous said...

I know there is a major issue regarding Trump and Congress's reviled and psychotic tax cuts and budget plan and how NY gives up more money than other states

That's a good one! Clinton who used the Social Security monies to claim a "balanced budget" and Obongo who robbed us and gave the money to illegals and his supporters.
No to mention the useless wars where trillions were spent.
By any chance do you know where all the money is going in NYC and NYS?
Highest taxes, tolls, fines, cost of living with a lock and barrel de facto communist leadership.
Epic fail pal.


JQ LLC said...

Re: Epic Fail

Listen, just because I mentioned that Trump's shitty and apocalyptic budget plan and tax cuts for himself and his wealthy betters doesn't mean that I am not cognizant of the past wealthy dem presidents jiggering of the economy and continuing pointless expensive wars. Amazing that you overlooked "obongo"'s pilfering of the middle class to re-finance the criminal banks.

Trump's budget will exacerbate his hometown state's and city's problems and it's ever growing pressing needs. And the fauxgressive fauxcommie de Faustio and the one party dem-machine city council are milking this to the bone.

All of these people mentioned deserve each other and to be shot into a void in the galaxy.

Anonymous said...

The transit system is overwhelmed. Too many people.There is work being performed 24/7 on the entire system, when work trains and crews have to get around,of course it will incur delays. The other problem is that there are not enough qualified / experienced people to do this work. Our young people don't want to get their hands dirty or work for a living.

Anonymous said...

"The MTA is getting worse because it is a union run organization. Too many illegal aliens WORK for the MTA (how much vetting is done on those from Bengla Desh or Pakistan?) 95% of the workforce are from the Caribbean."

I was just saying this same thing you can add Russian's to the list who do not speak English. How can you fix trains if you can't read the manuals. Now at mechanic interviews they make sure you can speak and understand English.

JQ LLC said...

Did anyone see this? In Herald Square commuters where stacked like pigs in a New Jersey slaughterhouse trying to get to the parade. It looks like they all came at the same time. It's probably due to the strict NYPD security crackdown against terror, but somehow the MTA did not plan for the pat downs for hundreds of thousands of parade goers.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/thanksgiving-paradegoers-run-chaos-herald-square-station-article-1.3653332

It's just insane.

Anonymous said...

Amazing that you overlooked "obongo"'s pilfering of the middle class to re-finance the criminal banks.


Overlooked nothing, but I don't feel like writing a book on how this whole shit called finance works. Everybody needs to do their own research.
Trump can give all the tax breaks to the rich, but the military-industrial-banking complex is running the show.
Trillions for wars, Federal Reserve that is federal like Federal Express while this country is fucked. So is the rest of the world.
Did you ever wonder why North Korea and Iran are in the news daily?
They don't have a Central Bank controlled by the old boys, that's why.
Doesn't matter who the President is, the powers that print money have full control.
Media, finance, they own and control pretty much everything.
No one dares to double cross them, see what happened to JFK who wanted to take the power of issuing money back.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Anonymous said...

I was just saying this same thing you can add Russian's to the list who do not speak English

Maybe the hockey players, but I doubt they woudl work for the MTA.

Anonymous said...

How will politicians ever get campaign donations if they don't allow for inflated contracts?

No one who does business with the state should be allowed to contribute to campaigns. It's corruption plain and simply.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 24....

Given your spelling and grammatical errors, I question how well you speak English.

Joe Moretti said...

JOURNALISM at is BEST, something rarely seen today, especially in this hack city of NYC, home of corrupt elected officials, agencies who give BIG FUCK YOU to the constituents, especially the middle class.

Anonymous said...

Anon 26... why don't you start teaching English to fucking George Soros then?

https://www.infowars.com/soros-views-nation-state-as-problem-wants-one-world-government-solution-us-state-senator/

Teach GW Bush also, because he has no clue how to speak any language.
After you are done with these turkeys you can address the substance of the post if your agency allows you to post real comments.

Anonymous said...


Given your spelling and grammatical errors, I question how well you speak English.

Listen shill, I question your loyalty, sanity, you seem like a Shakespeare wannabe, try harder and you will get a job at the Dept. of Education, you are perfect fit with your ignorant stupidity. You'll go places.

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 28: What agency are you talking about?

Beyond that, how can I address the substance of what Anon No. 24 said when it makes no sense ?

Anon 26

Anon No 26 said...

Anon No 29:

With a disjointed comment like that YOU'RE talking about sanity and calling someone else stupid?

And what am I being disloyal to?