Elliot Sander, executive director of the MTA until last month, got some choice real estate on the Op-Ed page of the NY Times yesterday to plead his case for a favorable legacy. Kudos to Sander for tossing around a Dylan reference on the page typically reserved for genocidal atrocities in Darfur and Maureen Dowd’s witty imaginings of conversations involving Dick Cheney.

“Bad Blood on the Tracks” suggests that the transit system is far superior to the graffiti-ravaged subways of a previous generation–and even to the system whose management he inherited a few years ago.

In March, on-time performance for the subway system’s seven numbered lines rose by 3 percent overall and by as much as 11 percent on some lines. These improvements came after each line was assigned a general manager responsible for improving service.

The M.T.A. has long been burdened by convoluted and overlapping operating charters, work rules and politically dictated mandates. But during my two years as chief executive we made significant progress in consolidating the back office functions of seven regional agencies — those in charge of trains and buses as well as bridges and tunnels. We arranged for the two commuter railroads, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, to save money by jointly purchasing equipment and supplies. And we merged what had been three bus companies into one.

Sander says, with the backing of Albany, the MTA might actually accomplish many of the things it said it would accomplish the last few years.

With an adequate budget, the M.T.A. could not only maintain but also expand the transportation system. Rather than just finish projects under way — the first phase of the Second Avenue line, the extension of the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal and of the 7 train to Manhattan’s far West Side — we could extend the Second Avenue line into Brooklyn and the Bronx, have Metro-North service at Penn Station, modernize the subway signal system and provide high-speed buses to underserved city neighborhoods as well as Long Island and the Hudson Valley.

MTA executive director Elliot Sander, the face of the disarray in New York City’s transit system today, announced his resignation yesterday. The move gives Gov. Paterson closer watch of the railroad.

Sander gave notice after finishing up the fare deal that saves some subway and bus lines, raises subways a quarter, and avoids crushing rate hikes for the commuter lines.

Don’t cry for Mr. Sander–he gets paid $350,000 in severance. Think of that when you’re paying another 20 bucks for your monthly train pass.

The NY Times writes:

Mr. Sander’s employment agreement calls for him to receive a year’s pay after his resignation takes effect, he said. Mr. Sander’s compensation package is worth about $350,000 a year.

SecondAvenueSagas is, of course, all over it.

[image: NY Times]

That period of crazy-high gas prices last year was good for Metro-North business, as the railroad announced it clicked tickets for 84 million rides last year–a record for Metro-North.

Furthermore, us East-of-Hudson types enjoyed 97.5% on-time arrivals, meaning trains pulled in within six minutes of their scheduled arrival time. And 94% of you’s said you were satisfied with your Metro-North service–some presumably even on the dreaded New Haven Line.

So I suppose it’s only fare…I mean fair…to let Executive Director Elliot G. Sander gloat a bit.  ”Metro-North’s record-breaking ridership, stellar on-time performance and all-time high customer satisfaction represent of [sic] what is happening across our network of railroads, subways and buses,” he says. “These results reflect our belief that if you provide high-quality service, customers will take notice and vote with their feet.” 

I know the “vote with their feet” thing sounds like we’ve decided to walk to the city, but I think Sander was actually talking about taking the train, as opposed to driving.

One expects that Metro-North won’t be reporting another record in ridership next year, with all the layoffs. I’ve been asked twice in the last few weeks if I’m seeing fewer riders on the trains (or, as Warner Wolf might’ve said on Channel 2 in a happier time, people showing up dressed as empty seats). In fact I haven’t–trains are every bit as full in the morning, and certainly jam-packed in the evenings, as evidenced by the two times I’ve had to stand rather than sittin’ bitch in a three-seater in recent weeks.  

Maybe it’s because I take the slacker-esque 8:16 in the morning, when Wall Street is already starting to think about lunch, or because I take a normal-ish train home in the evening, when the stock broker guys are just about to nip into the day’s first martini at Dos Caminos. Or maybe we just don’t have a lot of finance folk on the Harlem line.

Anyone seeing it differently?

Sorry to end the work week on a bummer note, but we want to offer some different perspectives on the proposed MTA service cuts affecting subways, buses and commuter trains, which by all accounts look fairly hardcore. Mind you, we think much of the early proposals are simply political posturing to get riders worked up as they picture themselves waiting…and waiting…and waiting for that graffitti-covered G train as crackheads rummage through their purse, and force the guy pulling the purse strings to open up his satchel.

But MTA chief exec Elliot Sander is busting out some pretty grave adjectives to describe the cuts, which are designed to help make up the agency’s $1.2 billion shortfall for next year; among them, “draconian,” “harsh” and “very severe.” Price hikes, perhaps as early as the spring, will help cover the deficit too.

Subway cuts would include the outright elimination of the W and the Z (mind you, MLB was gonna “contract” the Minnesota Twins back in 2002, and they nearly made the playoffs this past year) and the shortening of the M and G, along with general scaling back of service for the remaining lines.

The NY Times blog City Room describes the commuter rail cuts thusly:

The Long Island Rail Road would cut 173 positions, cancel and combine some train lines, reduce service on weekends and off-peak hours and cut train crews. The Metro-North Railroad would cut 88 positions, shorten trains, increase the loading guidelines, slow down the restoration of Grand Central Terminal and cut cleaning and maintenance at the terminal. Fares would rise by 43 percent on the Long Island Bus.

StationStops has CBS2 reporting the shuttering of ticket offices, and committing the unforgiveable sin of calling our beloved morning destination “Grand Central Station.”

Metro-North will be eliminating three trains on the Hudson line, two on the Harlem line and four on the New Haven line.

At Grand Central Station, the station master’s office will close and the Harrison ticket office, as well as ticket offices in Crestwood and New Canaan, Conn., will also close.

SecondAvenueSagas is of course all over it like TJ on a Friday bottle of Sam Adams.

Amidst it all, it’s hard not to think about the quarter-billion paid out in those LIRR disability claims, many, many of them bogus.

Metro-North boss Peter Cannito uses the front page of the June Mileposts, out today, to bid farewell to the railroad. “I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of the work that is done every day to serve you,” says Cannito, who then begins to tell us how proud he is of the work that is done every day to serve us.

“The performance improvements, the ridership growth, the innovations that we have made in technology, and the strategic planning we have undertaken for our needs now, in five years, and in 20 years were all done to make this railroad better for you,” he enthuses.  

What Cannito and the rest of Mileposts does not mention, but the NY Times does, is that Metro-North–and the NYC subway–may raise prices again next year, on the heels of the price hikes it instituted just a few months ago. MTA executive director Elliot Sander sounded a very despondent note when addressing the Authority’s budget woes, due primarily to thinned real estate tax revenue and of course gas prices.

“We’re going over the cliff,” said Sander, fairly ominously, about the MTA’s 2008 finances.

The last time subway fares went up in consecutive years were the dreary days of 1980 and 1981.

Sounds like Cannito is getting out just in time.

[image: blog.bibijon.org]

When MTA CEO Elliot Sander gave his “state of the MTA” address just a few weeks ago, he spoke of increasing service on 11 subway lines and adding trains and cars on the LIRR and Metro-North, among other projects totaling some $30 million dollars.

While his trip to the podium wasn’t quite as ignominious as another Elliot S’s around the same time, those improvements appear to be nothing but a pipe dream. After Mayor Bloomberg urged the MTA to recheck its finances, the Authority decided it didn’t have the funds for the improvements.

Which is a wee bit bogus, as the hike in fares and tolls was sold as a way to improve the rider experience. In short, we get the fare hike without the improvements.

The shortfall was chiefly caused by a sharp drop in taxes from real estate transactions, transportation authority officials said. They held out hope that if finances improve by the summer, they could go ahead with the improvements, writes the NY Times.

Comments Straphangers Campaign mouthpiece Gene Russianoff to the Times, “They obviously couldn’t deliver on the promises they made at the time the fare went up, and that’s unfortunate, and it will make people very skeptical about future announcements.”

SecondAvenueSagas calls it “The MTA’s Worst Monday Ever.”

“…acknowledging this reality so soon after the fare hike is a terrible public relations move by the MTA,” SAS writes. “…This announcement hits the MTA at its weakest point. The agency, long viewed with skepticism by New Yorkers, has lost any shred of credibility when it needs it the most. Now, the public will not believe that the MTA ever planned to deliver the promised service upgrades. The authority simply used those upgrades to sell the public on a fare hike.”

What a horrific mess.