The Financial Effects of COVID Across the MTA

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the axing is being seriously considered and is starting to be carried out.

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... ge-deficit

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority will announce the first cuts to address a massive budget deficit created by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more drastic cuts, including service reductions, to come. The New York Times reports moves under review include service reductions, job cuts, postponement of infrastructure projects, and toll increases at the bridges and tunnels run by the agency. Facing deficits now projected at $16.2 billion through 2024, MTA chairman Patrick J. Foye said the size of the shortfall is “why these unpalatable, unacceptable alternatives have to be considered. … We’re going to have to make hard choices no matter what happens here.” Officials say that additional emergency federal assistance currently under consideration in Congress could help prevent some of the cuts, but even with more aid, there will still be a deficit. On Wednesday, the MTA board is expected to review cuts that will save $1 billion in 2021 with moves including elimination of consulting contracts and reduction of overtime, but that will only be the beginning of the process.

It's hard to operate at 20% of normal passenger load (according to the times article). I don't like the implication that they plan to borrow to cover their deficits.

This is the new campaign which the MTA has started as an urgent call for funding before they start making devastating cuts. Spread the word and its cause to as many people as you can in order to give the support it needs!

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/ ... sis--61415

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday launched new digital ads as part of a #SaveTransit campaign that highlights the agency's financial crisis stemming from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MTA officials have said the agency has an "urgent need" for $12 billion in federal funding. Created in-house by MTA employees, the new ads will be distributed across social media. They include video content and in-system messaging on digital screens, and ads on buses throughout the system, MTA officials said in a press release.

"The MTA simply cannot wait any longer for relief from Washington," said MTA Chairman and Chief Excecutive Officer Patrick Foye. "If the [U.S.] Senate fails to step up and deliver $12 billion, it would be a devastating blow to mass transit as we know it. We need action now, and the more we can amplify this message, the better."

The campaign's launch came on the same day that the MTA outlined "potentially devastating" service reductions, fare and toll increases, headcount reductions, as well as gutting its historic $51.5 billion capital plan at a special board meeting. The cuts would be carried out in the absence of the federal funding, MTA officials said.

An example of potential service cuts is trimming MTA Long Island Rail Road service by half, including eliminating one or more branches to help close the budget deficit, Newsday.com reported yesterday.

Why should public transit (and public transit unions) be exempt from the pain and suffering that the rest of the country has had to endure from fear of COVID?

Commuting to downtown locations may be a thing of the past regardless of what happens with COVID, and the lack of policing that we're seeing in NYC, CHI, etc. isn't helping the argument for those businesses to return anytime soon.

It's already creating a real estate crash in major cities as leases come up and aren't being renewed. That includes commercial as well as residential.

It's a great time to be selling a house within 30 miles of downtown Chicago yet outside the city limits. Thousands of renters are leaving small apartments in urban centers for larger homes with yards in the suburbs each week. Many of those work for companies who've said that Zoom and virtual collaboration tools are going to remain in use regardless of what happens with defeating COVID. Even my own employer who was vehemently anti-WFH has come 180 degrees and is now looking at a WFH option for those who want it.

As this takes hold, transit agencies will be set back 30-40 years and it's not going to snap back for decades if at all.

Might as well rip off the bandaid and figure out how to adapt.

So you're saying we should just let it suffer and eventually be extinct? If anything, more people are interested in taking rail transport over air transport for the longer runs at least, and even that could be used for daily commutes.

I keep seeing signs about “we’re all in this together” which means we all get to share in the sacrifice. That doesn’t mean only private enterprise suffers while public sector gets full pay.....

My employer reduced hours by 20% or more for all employees and had raises canceled for 2020. We’ve seen layoffs of 15% already and will see another 15% shortly. Thousands of businesses have closed. Thousands more have been burned and looted.

How exactly are state and city workers sharing in that pain?

Yes, public transit needs to suffer like the rest of us are. Nobody’s exempt from economic gravity.

And no, people aren’t more interested in rail for longer trips.

You’re oblivious if you think anyone wants to spend days being locked in a poorly ventilated train car with others versus a few hours in a plane with air refresh rates of every four-six minutes or taking/renting a car/van with only them or their family/friends...


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Even in better times, many people would prefer not to travel too long on a train in each direction five days a week to get to work. For example, traveling from Dover Plains to Grand Central Terminal every weekday in a row is too much for the ideal passenger. With more employers requiring their employees to work from home, the days of supercommuting are truly over. I think those people are probably the first to telecommute. They may be needed in the office a few times a week or even month.

Additional bad news, article posted 8/24

https://www.cars.com/articles/coronavir ... rk-425887/

The MTA is telling 11 of their suppliers that they are "in jeopardy" if the MTA does not get $12 Billion in funding. If this is supposed to be in a different thread, please move it if necessary. Full article in the link below. #SaveTransit

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/ny ... annel=news

New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye sent warning letters to MTA’s 11 largest suppliers on Sept. 17. “The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a horrific toll in human, social and economic terms across the nation,” he noted in the letters. “I am writing to alert you that because of this financial devastation, many current and all future contracts are in jeopardy without an injection of $12 billion in emergency federal aid.”

This writing campaign—and the potential for MTA service reductions, layoffs and fare hikes, for instance—stems from stalled federal relief talks, according to MTA.

The letter recipients are: Alstom Transportation, Bombardier Transportation, Cubic Transportation Systems, Hitachi Rail STS USA, Kawasaki Rail Car, New Flyer of America, Prevost Car (US), Siemens Corp., Thales Transport & Security, Transcore and Wabtec Passenger Transit.

Rail car: Alstom Transportation, Bombardier Transportation, Cubic Transportation Systems, Hitachi Rail STS USA, Kawasaki Rail Car, Siemens Corp., and Wabtec Passenger Transit

Bus: New Flyer of America (standard buses) and Prevost Car US (commuter/touring bus)

Communications & Security: Thales Transport & Security

Fare Collection: Cubic Transportation Systems

Bridge Toll Collection: Transcore

This hits EVERYWHERE. NYC MTA basically said "If we don't get bailed out, you don't get paid." Which tell you about how bad the state of transit is.

Why I say "EVERYWHERE"? Take Cubic. That's fare collection for MTA NYC, MTA Maryland, WMATA, and Chicago CTA at least. If MTA NYC makes Cubic go chapter 11, that's going to cause trouble for the rest of the nation when fareboxes go down.