City Council Transportation Committee Questions MTA Cuts

    By Emily F. Keller  

    MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) President Thomas Prendergast spent last Thursday morning fending off criticism from the City Council Transportation Committee about drastic service cuts planned for this spring.

    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to eliminate or reduce service on dozens of bus lines, saying that many of the lines overlap with other MTA bus and subway services.

    However, many seniors and people with disabilities are unable to switch to the subway if their bus route disappears, or may require a particular bus to reach the accessible subway stops that comprise only one-fifth of the system.

    The MTA also plans to reduce Access-A-Ride paratransit service while promising to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines that requires the transit provider to offer the service to people who are unable to use subways and buses because of a disability. Kathy Andrade and J.M. Colon (pictured) said they oppose the cuts.

    The MTA will change 4 percent of its annual door-to-door Access-A-Ride trips to a connector service that brings customers to the nearest accessible mass transit stop instead, and will look into tightening eligibility standards.

    The transit provider also plans to increase the use of taxi vouchers for paratransit customers who do not require a lift to board a vehicle – a move that is favored by the disability community. The MTA plans to establish a prepaid card system for the vouchers, beginning with a pilot program later this year.

    The MTA Board approved the cuts in December following the announcement of a $400 million loss from its 2010 budget. The funds were lost to union negotiated pay raises for employees and a lower than expected collection of the new payroll tax that was established as part of the MTA’s 2009 rescue package. Click here to read the background story.

    The revised proposal includes new cuts to express bus service and the far ends of some bus routes. However, it restores some cross-town Manhattan buses that were slated for elimination and reduces the losses in overnight buses from 25 eliminations to 15.

    The MTA will no longer increase loading guidelines during rush hour but will do so during off-peak hours, allowing for greater capacity on subway cars. Subways will face cuts as well, including the elimination of the W and Z lines and shortening of the G line.

    The Access-A-Ride changes are intended to save the transit provider $40 million this year and $80 million each year after. The bus cuts total $60 million this year and the subway cuts are worth $17.6 million. The MTA will reduce its administrative expenses and staff to save $49 million and lay off about 450 station agents while maintaining one 24-hour booth in every station.

    Although the cuts have been approved, the MTA has left the door open to re-consideration as the transit provider seeks new funding streams in a political face-off with the city and state governments.

    This week, the MTA is holding public hearings in each borough, as well as Westchester and Nassau Counties, as required by law. However, council members and the public questioned the MTA’s willingness to alter its plans based on public input, particularly since several of the hearings will be held on the same evenings, preventing officials from attending every hearing.

     Access-A-Ride Changes

    A Transportation Committee hearing on the Access-A-Ride cuts was postponed due to snow, but Prendergast addressed the most contentious proposal for a feeder service to buses and trains that would replace door-to-door service for about 292,000 annual rides.

    Prendergast (center), who testified with colleagues Lois Tendler and Peter Cafiero, assured the Council that the switch would only be made for customers who are able to use mass transit and may apply to only a portion of their trip. He said that NYCT’s current practice of providing door-to-door rides for all Access-A-Ride customers exceeds the regulations.

    NYCT also plans to morph its conditional eligibility program, which is provided to a growing segment of Access-A-Ride customers, for people whose travel abilities are affected by extreme heat or cold. The revised program would base trips on temperature rather than season, preventing customers who are approved for winter or summer months only from using the service on warm winter or cool summer days. NYCT plans to deny about 26,000 trips per year with this change.

    “The rapid and steep growth in demand for Access-A-Ride paratransit service, in combination with the high cost of providing the service, has exacerbated the MTA’s operating budget deficits in recent years,” Prendergast said. Access-A-Ride serves about 136,000 people and cost $448 million to provide last year.

    “Given the continued rapid growth of AAR service, it is impossible to balance a deficit of the magnitude that NYC Transit is facing without proposing changes to paratransit service. Our challenge is to seek cost efficiencies while continuing to address the rising demand for service,” he said.

    However, Prendergast tried to reassure worried customers that the cuts will be reasonable by saying, “I don’t want to be in a position where we’re denying a ride for a dialysis patient. That’s difficult enough thing to go through without having to worry about transit.”

    The MTA will continue to install Automatic Vehicle Location and Monitoring (AVLM) Systems in all Access-A-Ride vehicles, which is scheduled for completion later this year. The transit provider has also begun installed Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems that will enable customers to receive notification of arriving vehicles.

    The Public’s Response

    Public speakers responded to the MTA testimony with criticism.

    Maurice Jenkins, Vice President of the Stations Division of Transport Workers Union Local 100, spoke out against station agent layoffs and Access-A-Ride cuts.

    “One of the big success stories in New York City has been the rise of paratransit services for the disabled,” Jenkins said. “Many of us can remember when there was no Access-A-Ride, and when thousands of our fellow New Yorkers were shut-ins because they were not able to use public transportation. This has made a huge difference in quality of life for many of us and many members or our families.

    “While efficiency is necessary and important, it looks as if the MTA is taking a knife to Access-A-Ride rather than a scalpel.”

    William Henderson, executive director of the New York City Transit Riders Council, said in a written statement to the Council that bus route modifications and discontinuations based on proximity to subway stations do not take riders with disabilities into account.

    “The flaw here is that many bus customers are not able to use our subways that, while a great system, remain largely inaccessible to persons with disabilities,” Henderson wrote.

    It also fails to take into account barriers such as elevator outages.

    Henderson said it remains to be seen whether the MTA cuts will strand a large number of riders, but wrote, “At the very least, these changes will increase the uncertainty and insecurity associated with Access-A-Ride service, which is already greater than it should be, and we find it hard to see how at least some riders subject to these new initiatives would not fall through the cracks and in fact become stranded.”

    Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign pointed out that Bay Ridge, which would lose express bus service, is a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community and the cuts could effect seniors.

    Kathy Andrade of the Hudson Guild senior center told the Council, “We feel that this is very irresponsible, insensitive and cruel to seniors and people with disabilities.”

    Andrade, who walks with a cane, pointed out that many seniors who come to her center use Access-A-Ride, and said, “This will keep seniors at home, and they will become ill.”

    J.M. Colon, also of the Hudson Guild senior center, said he was speaking “on behalf of old people” in opposing the cuts. He called on the MTA to reduce executive pay instead.

   Council Member James Vacca, chair of the Transportation Committee, criticized the planned elimination of the Bx14 bus serving Country Club in the Bronx, which takes riders to the accessible Pelham Bay Park subway station on the 6 line. Instead, the Bx8 will be re-routed from Crosby Avenue to Stadium Avenue, taking riders to the inaccessible Middletown Road station on the same line.

    Prendergast said the cuts were designed to impact as few customers as possible. He did not say if or how accessibility was considered in the decision-making process.

    Debating Access-A-Ride Growth

    In the course of the hearing, Prendergast pointed out that Access-A-Ride is more expensive than the entire transit systems in Denver, San Diego, San Jose, Milwaukee and St. Louis, but he did not address the differences in populations between New York and the other cities while making the comparison.

    This information sparked criticism from Council Member Peter Koo of Flushing, who responded that Access-A-Ride service should be reduced, and said he sees people using the service who do not qualify and can “walk as fast as me.”

    Prendergast reminded the committee that the service is provided to people with both physical and mental disabilities, and mentioned his son as an example of someone who is unable to navigate the system during a service change.

    “You may see somebody who may not look like they qualify and they actually qualify, Prendergast said. He also said an accessible mass transit system is cheaper to provide than paratransit, and that, “We want to save Access-A-Ride for the people who really, really need it.”

    Jenkins responded to that discussion later by saying, “The MTA says it will strictly enforce the rules and cut down on abuse – but we are concerned that this policy, in itself, may be abusive to our elderly and disabled.

    “We don’t believe many New Yorkers are deliberately exaggerating their illnesses to wait for van transportation. There’s a point at which the need to cut costs overwhelms common sense.”

    The next MTA hearings take place in Brooklyn and the Bronx at 6 p.m. tonight. Transit riders can submit comments online as well. Click here for details.