It was a huge day for long-overdue, underwhelming, mixed transportation news yesterday, so we’ll get right to it after reminding you that it’s our December Donation Drive, which means we’re passing the hat to keep our lights on for another year.

Yesterday, we received generous donations from folks we’d like to thank personally: Thanks, Michael! Thanks, Silvio! Thanks, George!

The rest of you can get in on the action by clicking the yellow icon above. Thanks in advance!

And now, the roundup from a weird news day:

• The MTA’s fare-capping pilot is closer to reality, finally bringing the equivalent of unlimited MetroCards to OMNY users (NY Post, NY Times, amNY, Gothamist). The Daily News story also had details of a $5 “City Ticket” on intra-city commuter rail travel that’s also in the works.
• Forgive us if we don’t genuflect before our elected leaders as they allocate $10 billion for an improvement to an airport that doesn’t include better transit to said airport. “When it is done, it will be an experience that is worthy of the name New York,” Gov. Hochul said. Worthy of New York? Why, because it’s such a boondoggle for The Carlyle Group? (NYDN, Gothamist) At least Ben Kabak kept ’em honest:

Nothing capture the divide between the political class and Normal People on transit quite as much as the amount of time and capital spent by the political class on airports vs. buses. It's very frustrating to watch repeatedly.

— Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) December 13, 2021

• Oh, and speaking of announcements yesterday that didn’t do much for us, Sen. Charles Schumer announced that he had healed a rift between Amtrak and the MTA to fix East River tunnels that had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. But Schumer had already lined up a big chunk of that money back in 2016, and it’s 2021 and the work still hasn’t been done. The local papers took the announcement at face value more or less (NYDN). The Times even bought the line that the work was “stalled by the pandemic” (even though the project has been stalled much longer than that).
• While we’re on the subject of underwhelming news, the MTA announced plans to upgrade signals on the F train in Eastern Queens … with the $65-million project set to be completed in 2026. It’s unclear why public agencies think they get credit for discussing stuff now when straphangers won’t benefit for years. We’ll cover the ribbon-cutting when the time comes, we promise. (NYDN)
• Did the city rush its environmental review of a Coney Island ferry dock just so Mayor de Blasio could have one final piece of ferry good news? Let’s put it this way, usually when media headlines go with a question headline like that, you know what the answer is. (NY Times)
• A hit-and-run driver killed a woman in Queens late on Monday, as the bloodiest year in Mayor de Blasio’s tenure continues. (NYDN)
• The Post is so eager to demonize Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that it’s running stories about centrist Democrats who aren’t even running against her … as running against her!
• Takes one to not know one: The NYPD is writing very few fines against non-mask-wearers in the subway. (NY Post, amNY)
• The first lawmaker our old man editor ever covered was Upper West Side Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, who announced his retirement yesterday. Is our old man editor next? (NY Times)