Troubles Ahead For The M.T.A.

Riding on the 4 train this morning, I saw an advertisement placed by the M.T.A. that stated the fare was $1 in 1986 and in today's dollars that's $1.89, further that the cost of an unlimited ride is $1.17. Nevermind how misleading and beneficial they make economic numbers look. If they have to put an ad there to try and manipulate people into having sympathy for the fare increases next year and in 2011, be afraid of what comes next. With bad economic times piled on to an already perilous situation, it'll be more than just the promises of a better ride on the subway that we'll end up losing.

From The NY Times:

Questions in recent months about the authority’s economic future have repeatedly drawn the same response: Wait for the Ravitch commission.

But the stock market’s troubles and the global banking crisis have accelerated the authority’s financial slide to the point that officials are now working to carve deeper cuts in their budget plans for 2009.

And it appears likely that there will be insufficient time for the State Legislature to act on the Ravitch commission’s proposals, meaning the authority will be forced to adopt an austerity budget with both service cuts and fare increases by late December, an official said.

Further, because of sharply falling revenues, an even larger increase in fares and tolls might have to be considered than in the authority’s earlier budget plan, which called for an 8 percent rise in revenues from those sources, the official added.

If you can bear to read more, go to the full article from the Times. When Elliot Sander says they're going to bring painful stuff, then you know it is going to be bad. I am certainly no economist, but next year's dollars will not inflate by eight percent and a fare increase that reflects it will be a far cry from the sympathy-inducing words I saw on the 4 train. Not only that, the ad must have run out of space before it could have mentioned that we get a lot less for our $1 $2 fare with more delays and overcrowded trains. Now it looks as if we can add reduced service to that as well.