Wednesday, December 10, 2008

MTA - No Sense or sensibility

Congress is grilling the Big Three Automakers on what they will do with bailout billions if they get it.

That makes sense.

I believe that New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) should also be grilled on price increases and tolls on the East River Bridges.

Not too long ago politicians were extolling the virtues of the MTA as being reasonable and an alternative to driving that would make congestion pricing in Manhattan feasible.

Obviously they were wrong.

I have not used the East River Bridges in over ten years, but believe the new plan is a stupid approach to what we are led to believe is a temporary condition. If we spend money now to convert the bridges to toll roads they will remain toll roads forever and be subject to continual increases. They will further make New York a divided city.

To turn the bridges over to the MTA is asinine.

They must put their own house in order first.

They should give up their pool of limousines and chauffeurs. Give up their free EZ passes and learn their own public transit system. Stop spending money on fancy offices. Stop adding high paid executives. Stop paying for cost overruns on construction projects. In short stop wasting money before they are entitled to a raise in fares.

1 comment:

hariet said...

You left out the dot after www. When I put it in, I was able to connect. Your blog left out something too.

I read your blog and it doesn't make sense. Our city is in dire straits. We have lost revenue from unemployed highly paid workers. We lost 150000 jobs so far and the numbers are climbing. There will be a deluge of services that are needed. Health needs and crime, hunger, shelter needs are up. All services must be cut back. We are a broken city. Eliminating a few limos or fancy offices etc is a drop in the bucket. They should be cut back too, but that won't save us. Let's be real.