MTA Planning Cuts in PLG Train Service

A combination of the MTA's usual mismanagement and the global financial crisis is conspiring to degrade public transportation citywide. The Daily News reports that the MTA will release a budget tomorrow slashing service on buses and trains, including the complete elimination of the W and Z lines.

Among the planned service cuts is a reduction of service on the B train. The Daily News sidebar says that it will go from every 8 minutes to every 10 minutes on weekends but, as the B doesn't run late nights or weekends, they must have meant weekdays. The J train is also shifting from express to local service, presumably to replace the Z. I mention the J because sometimes - and I've never been able to figure out exactly when - the J will run from Prospect Park to Essex Street. I have no idea if this mysterious service will be affected.

It is hard to look at the dire budget issues facing the MTA and not be angry all over again that congestion pricing was voted down. By falling for the canard that congestion pricing is a tax on the middle class, the State Assembly instead placed a broader tax on the far more numerous New Yorkers that ride the buses and trains. Congestion pricing and the connected federal transportation subsidy would have eased the MTA's budget problems. The money was earmarked for increasing public transportation and instead, we are facing substantial service cuts.

Instead of a forward-thinking transportation plan and financial solvency we are pushing more people towards driving and the MTA may as well have as change its logo to a man wearing a barrel forlornly looking down the track for a train that will never come.