The Metropolitan Transportation Authority may reduce subway and bus service if its projected $900 million deficit cannot be made up by other means, according to an MTA spokesperson.
The development comes two months after the MTA's announcement that it would pursue a subway and bus fare hike, which, if passed, would be the second in two years. MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan emphasized that at this point, service cuts are purely theoretical.
"The only thing that was discussed [last week] was the need to prepare what we would cut if we had to cut our budget by 4.5 percent," he said. "Service would be the last thing to be cut--other means would certainly come first."
Wiley Norvell, communications director for the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, told Spectator in August that he opposed the idea of cutting service while raising fares.
"It's one thing to ask for fare hikes or bonds or to put up with service delays when you have a light at the end of the tunnel and the quality of service is going up," Norvell said. "Unfortunately, with the fiscal picture what it is, they [riders] are being asked to pay more for less, and that's a really untenable position."
The MTA will present its Fiscal Year 2009 financial plan on Nov. 20. In addition to details on service cuts, if they are to go forward, the plan will include more information on the subway and bus fare hike the Authority proposed over the summer in response to its potentially crippling deficit.
No information has been released on how large the fare hike would be, or whether it would involve changes to the $2 base fare, unlimited MetroCard prices, or the MetroCard bonus ride structure. Nor is information available on what specifically the service cuts would involve, or which subway and bus lines would be affected.
The faltering economy and a poor financial outlook have already led the MTA to indefinitely postpone service upgrades--including increased evening service on the 1 Train--that it had promised in hopes of winning public support for the last fare hike, which took effect in March.
"It's very unlikely that we would have to act on this exercise [cutting service], but it's an exercise we need to take to be prudent," Donovan said. "We're required by state law to have a balanced budget. If fare and, more importantly, real estate tax revenues come in significantly below what we expect, we need to have a plan in place to match those revenue reductions."
maggie.astor@columbiaspectator.com
