N Y C M TA FA R E S

K U S H M A H A N

• Believe it or not, the subway systems are getting more crowded every day with a rising six million daily riders threatening the limit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) infrastructural capacity.

• Because of the growing pressure for more cars, more routes, and more employees, Thomas F. Prendergast, the chairman of the MTA, has called on New York City to add $300 million dollars to the annual budget, and to supply $1 billion for the construction of a new train path on second avenue.

• The agency currently runs a $32 billion dollar plan which it hopes to augment over the next few years to match the commensurate expansion of the city’s demography.

• Prendergast and agency officials are tempting a wide range of responses, many of which understand the need for a larger governmental contribution to help manage the growing complex which ceaselessly serves the five boroughs of the city.

B I L L D E B L A S I O

• Mayor Bill de Blasio stated he did indeed plan to allocate more funds to the city’s most operative agency, but introduced the figure amount at $125 million annually (for a total of $657 million over the next five years.)

• He was wary of the apparent overestimation of the agency, but made sure to formally acknowledge its indisputable paramountcy in the lives of roughly eight million citizens.

• In his assessment of the request, de Blasio clarified that a greater sense of planning was needed before money could be appropriated for expansion.

• However, his hesitance was accompanied by an eagerness to talk with federal and state officials about assisting in the accommodation of New York’s transportation system to a growing population.

• Some are worried by what seems like a reckless use of funds that could better support other sectors of the city.

• An agreement made under Mayor Bloomberg to pay $2.4 billion to extend the number 7 train, which runs from Flushing, Queens to Times Square, into Secaucus Junction in New Jersey ended in cancellation just three years after the initial introduction of the idea because it demanded too much money from the city.

• One thing everyone can support is Prendergast’s pledge that solicitation for funds would not result in raised subway fares. He himself called the action “unconscionable.”

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(1) http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/nyregion/mta-chairman-asks-new-york-city-for-more-than-1-billion-in-funding.html

(2) http://7online.com/archive/8406903/

S O U R C E S :

Thank you for watching! -Kush Mahan