Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Transit Funding

Subway Ridership Hits 65-Year High. Does Cuomo Care?

By Stephen Miller | Apr 20, 2015 | 9 Comments

Subway ridership hit a 65-year high in 2014, serving 1.75 billion trips last year, the most since the New York City Transit Authority was formed in 1953. That’s an increase of 2.6 percent over 2013 and 12 percent since 2007, according to the MTA. The subway now serves 5.6 million passenger trips on an average weekday, and 6 million on an […]

Jim Brennan’s Transpo $ Plan: Gas Tax, Income Tax, and Forced City Funding

By Stephen Miller | Apr 10, 2015 | 10 Comments

A bill from Assembly Member Jim Brennan, who chairs the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, would create a transportation finance authority to collect new taxes and help fund the MTA as well as roads, bridges, and transit statewide. It’s the first major transportation funding proposal to come out of Albany this year. “Time is growing […]

$100 Million in BRT Funding at Stake in Albany Budget Negotiations

By Stephen Miller | Mar 25, 2015 | 3 Comments

There’s $100 million for Bus Rapid Transit in the Assembly’s budget proposal, and advocates are working to ensure the funds emerge intact from closed-door negotiations with Governor Cuomo and the State Senate. The New York League of Conservation Voters, which has joined with Staten Island business interests to advocate for North Shore BRT, is asking supporters to contact lawmakers. […]

Fed Up With the Latest Fare Hike? Be Sure to Say #ThanksCuomo

By Stephen Miller | Mar 23, 2015 | 7 Comments

It’s easy to get annoyed with the MTA: Your train is slow and crowded, the station is dirty, the bus is late — and to top it off, you just got hit with another fare hike. You’re paying more for deteriorating service, and the only place to direct your anger is a faceless bureaucracy known as the […]

Albany Has Already Saddled the MTA With More Debt Than 30 Nations

By Stephen Miller | Feb 12, 2015 | 5 Comments

As Albany contemplates paying for the MTA capital program by borrowing as much as $15 billion, it’s worth pausing to examine the debt load straphangers are already shouldering. To put it in perspective, the MTA carries more debt than Bolivia, Tanzania, and Luxembourg combined, according to numbers compiled by the Straphangers Campaign. The MTA owes more than at […]

Cuomo’s Transit Budget Is a Confusing Jumble of Raids and Transfers

By Stephen Miller | Feb 5, 2015 | 8 Comments

It’s state budget season! Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive budget is chock-a-block with raids of dedicated transit funds, questionable transfers, and toll cuts doled out as election-year favors. It’s a mess that doesn’t answer how the state will close the $15.2 billion gap in the MTA capital program. Cuomo’s attempts to satisfy MTA haters in the […]

Show More Stories