12 MAY 31, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
HEADING
The hard but good plan to rebuild the MTA
Listen carefully and you’ll hear
the proverbial piper calling for
his paycheck. Look carefully and
you’ll see the waiter approaching the
table with the proverbial bill.
The MTA has run out of time, and
commuters have run out of patience.
The broken infrastructure and
systemic failures that cause hours of
commuter delays every day require
the MTA to conduct a major overhaul
that will cost billions and take years
to complete.
New York City Transit President
Andy Byford announced a comprehensive,
$37 billion, decade-long plan
to bring the subways and buses into
the 21st century. It’s a good plan that
will, among other items, end the daily
signal problems that infuriate straphangers
and provide Queens, in particular,
with a revamped bus system
featuring new buses and redesigned
routes.
The Byford plan is the way forward
for New York City’s public
transit system — but make no mistake,
all of us will pay for this, one
way or another.
The plan calls for $3.8 billion in
annual investment over the fi rst fi ve
years, and another $3.6 billion every
year for the fi nal fi ve years. It’s a lot of
money, and the city and state already
pay billions of dollars annually to keep
the subways, commuter trains and bus
lines running. Commuters contribute
hundreds of millions more for the
privilege to do so.
Where does one fi nd $3.8 billion a
year to spend on a public transit system?
More bonds, more taxes and, yes,
higher fares, too.
The revamped congestion pricing
plan in Manhattan, aff ecting for-hire
vehicles, will pump hundreds of millions
of dollars to the MTA in capital
repairs. That’s a good start, but everyone
concedes that more money will
have to be found to fulfi ll the Byford
plan’s objectives.
We need our lawmakers, both at
City Hall and in Albany, to step up
now. They have to show some political
courage and make the tough decisions
necessary to fund the MTA overhaul.
Nobody wants to pay more for anything.
Like the driver who sees the
“check engine” light fl ashing in the
dashboard, or the homeowner eyeing
a leaking pipe under the kitchen sink,
they seek a temporary fix to keep
things together just a little longer.
But in the end, the temporary fi x
always gives way; the problem festers
into something even greater; and the
owner always winds up paying more.
Let’s get the MTA rebuild started
and let’s take the pain that comes with
it, knowing that in the end, our transit
system will be stronger and more reliable
than ever.
EDITORIAL
ESTABLISHED 1908
Co-Publishers
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
Editor-in-Chief
ROBERT POZARYCKI
Classifi ed Manager
DEBORAH CUSICK
Assistant Classifi ed Manager
MARLENE RUIZ
Reporter
RYAN KELLEY
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