MTA going whose way?

I probably can't prove this but as the MTA has started some service cuts in the last week including some service announcements which stated service changes through December 31st 2009 on some lines; they have tried to fight a public outcry by making more audible platform announcements about safety and how far the next train is. This is how the MTA makes it up to its loyal customers after months of threats to raise fares and cut service.

Now don't get me wrong, I won't complain about finally being able to hear these messages but it is so ridiculous that it takes the possibility in a 30% fare increase for the MTA to start to force its service station attendants to do their job. In general you can't find a group of less motivated people than those who sit it their bunkers at subway stations but the fact that all of a sudden I’m all of a sudden told how far the next train is, is just a public relations sham to try to get away from the actual issue by painting over it with something they should be doing already anyway.

Of course the biggest commuter crisis was averted by another dirty Albany closed door meeting (the same type that crushed Bloomberg's very competent congestion pricing concept) so now we are going to get a smaller fare increase and supposedly less cuts and the TOR cynic is left to wonder if those 30-40% increases and deep service cut threats were ever necessary or just a way for the MTA to posture.

Let's hope the platform messages stay audible, the service cuts are minimal and the MTA employees start smiling since they should be happy that they all have jobs in this economy...

now if somehow they can find some way of having people stop trying to cram in before passengers have had a chance to get off the train that would be a miracle.

 
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry