Halloran Calls for MTA Audit and Accountability
Council Candidate Halloran Salutes Mayor’s MTA Plan But Calls for Further Development of the Proposal to Include Audit and Accountability
Today, the Mayor proposed a sweeping overhaul of the MTA; ranging from common sense practical programs onto realistic renovations of older and underused resources that will improve ridership throughout the City. His specific programs to expand the CityTicket program to include LIRR and Metro North stations so that Bronx and Queens riders pay reduced fares will be of great benefit to those boroughs and has an eye for moving the MTA towards a unified pay-system. Other portions of the Bloomberg plan include a reopening of the Staten Island North Shore Rail, countdown clocks on subway routes, and Pilot light rail and street-car services in North Brooklyn and Western Queens waterfront neighborhoods. The proposal also deals with the Bus and Toll portions of the MTA’s reach by expanding Rapid Transit to reduce travel times on bus routes in congested areas, providing free cross-town buses, commuter vans, improvements to the ParaTransit services to provide better transportation for handicapped and elderly riders and using tracking technology and reductions during slower periods and increased evening service to ease congestion, overcrowding and underutilization. The Mayor also suggests gateless tolls at the crossings, and expanded Ferry systems and even HOV improvements and expansions.
In addition to these functional improvements, Mike Bloomberg correctly posits the need for a unified Police presence overseeing the safety and security of the MTA system, and improved public-private partnerships to maintain and improve the stations and lines. The most significant aspect of his plan revolves around an overhaul of the MTA’s bureaucracy. It is here that I believe the Mayor must reach further and force Albany to open the books on the MTA and make it a more transparent authority.
While I salute the Mayor for his vision and organized plan to cut the bloated bureaucracy and restore services that are cost-effective and responsible his plan to merge overlapping administrative functions and to eliminate bureaucratic redundancy (something that I may add could be done to the general City government as well), is just the beginning. The MTA should have its books comprehensively audited and a thorough cost-cutting analysis done top to bottom. The MTA was originally formed some 30 years ago; Albany chartered it to be a cost savings authority, to make the rapid transit systems more efficient, and to eliminate redundancy and duplicative costs, it has devolved into quite the opposite: inefficient, bloated, and unresponsive. If the Mayor is to succeed in a long term solution to the transit crisis, it will require a complete make-over at the MTA and the public will need to feel they can TRUST that their money is being spent wisely. The rapid transit system must be clean, efficient, on-time, and cost-effective. Anything less simply punts the problem to the future. We cannot afford another overrun and a Hudson-River-Two-Step from Albany. Open the Books, Audit the Budget, and Set the MTA right side up now, since we are likely starting from near scratch.
If anyone can force Albany to listen, it is Mayor Mike; it’s a fight worth taking on if the mayor is serious about fixing the MTA.
