4 JULY 2, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Analysis: A massive MTA budget crunch
may spell ‘doomsday’ sequel for subways
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@QNS.COM
@ROBBPOZ
Facing the eff ects of the “Great
Recession” more than a decade
ago, the MTA announced
a “doomsday budget” that included
service cuts which aff ected hundreds
of thousands of New Yorkers.
It would take years for the MTA
to climb out of its budget hole and
reverse some of the changes they
deemed necessary to get through
the crisis. Still, some of the biggest
reminders of the “doomsday budget”
are present, especially within the
subway system.
But now the MTA is facing a fi scal
calamity even greater than the “Great
Recession” that precipitated the apocalyptic
cuts of 2009-10. MTA Chair and
CEO Pat Foye said at the authority’s
June 24 board meeting that the authority
is facing a “four-alarm fi re” of
economic challenges brought on by
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Only a week earlier, during an
amNY webinar, Foye ruled out a
pandemic-related fare hike while
acknowledging the tremendous
fi scal challenges facing the MTA. But
on June 24, as the authority looks at
a $10 billion budget defi cit, one board
member suggested that every possible
remedy to the crisis is on the table —
including a fare hike, service cuts and
administrative changes.
The MTA is also seeking billions of
dollars in economic relief from Washington,
DC. They’ve already received
billions in previous COVID-19 economic
relief packages out of Capitol
Hill, but Foye noted that additional
federal resources are needed to help
the MTA recover from the pandemic.
The extra funds, included in the
HEROES Act bill stalled in the Senate,
could also help the MTA avoid making
cuts similar to those made in the
“doomsday budget” of 2009-10.
Back then, the biggest cuts impacted,
to little surprise, the subway system.
Two subway lines, the V and W,
were eliminated. Only the W train
returned aft er the fi rst phase of the
Second Avenue Subway opened in
2016, and the Q train — which, in the
doomsday budget, had replaced the
W between midtown Manhattan and
Astoria, Queens — was rerouted to the
new line.
Meanwhile, the V train, created in
2001 to run between the Lower East
Side and Forest Hills, Queens, remains
on the shelf. The doomsday budget
replaced the line with the current M
train route from Forest Hills, through
Manhattan and Brooklyn, up to
Middle Village, Queens.
Initially, the MTA had wanted to
eliminate the M entirely and replace
it with the V, but opted instead to
retain the M and shelf the V on the
redesigned route. The M logo was
also changed from brown to orange
to refl ect the change.
The new route also ended traditional
weekday M service from Middle
Village into Lower Manhattan and Bay
Ridge, Brooklyn.
The doomsday budget also truncated
the G line, the only subway route
that doesn’t cross the East River into
Manhattan. Before the cuts of 2009,
the G train ran from Brooklyn to Forest
Hills, but the doomsday budget
permanently made the Court Square
station in Long Island City the G train’s
last northbound stop.
The MTA had also wanted to
eliminate the Z train, the sporadic,
skip-stop, rush-hour service running
concurrent with the J train on weekdays.
However, the authority spared
the Z when fi nalizing its doomsday
budget.
Much has changed in the 11 years
since the MTA enacted the budget
cuts. As the economy improved, the
authority reversed service reductions
on other routes and even increased
capacity as more riders joined the system.
The G train, for example, went up
in car length, from four cars to six.
It’s hard to say how many cuts the
MTA would need to make if they don’t
get additional help during the current
fi scal calamity. But one statistic,
in comparing the doomsday budget
of 2009-10, should give New Yorkers
pause: the size of the MTA’s budget
defi cit.
The doomsday cuts were made
to help address an immediate $343
million budget shortfall and a longer
term, $1.2 billion gap. Both were hard,
yet manageable numbers.
But that’s a drop in the bucket compared
to the $10 billion abyss that the
MTA is currently staring at.
One could make the argument that
there may not be enough service cuts
to make a serious dent in that crater.
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