MTA

The first Select Bus Service route in Brooklyn is on track to start speeding bus trips next year, after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and NYC Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced yesterday afternoon that the project has secured a $28 million federal grant.

As the latest round of fare hike hearings -- the fourth in five years -- continues around the region, turnout is low but rants against the MTA board are still at a high boil. As usual, the elected officials who allocate resources to the transit system are shielded from public accountability.

MTA Love. Two words that have never before been paired have been practically joined at the hip during the recovery from Superstorm Sandy. To wit:

This spring, there was a glimmer of hope that Webster Avenue in the Bronx would get the first center-running bus-only lanes in New York. With NYC DOT and the MTA bringing Select Bus Service to Webster Avenue, the center-running option would have been the city's boldest effort yet to implement high-quality bus rapid transit. While Select Bus Service is still in the works for Webster Avenue and bus trips are on track to improve, the project won't include center-running lanes, which do more to keep buses moving smoothly through traffic than bus lanes next to the curb or the parking lane.

Since the beginning of 2008 -- right around the time that Albany legislators failed to enact congestion pricing -- NYC subway and bus fares have been hiked three times. Now the fourth fare hike in five years is on the horizon, and with Albany lawmakers sitting on their hands as MTA revenues fail to keep up with costs, there's no relief in sight for millions of transit-riding New Yorkers.

Mayor Bloomberg, NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota this morning announced a long-anticipated plan for Select Bus Service to LaGuardia Airport, which should speed travel times to and from neighborhoods in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens while improving service for local transit users.

A new report [PDF] from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says that the MTA budget picture is slowly improving as tax collections and ridership increase with a recovering economy, but that won't protect straphangers from big fare hikes.

Three candidates vying for the 72nd State Assembly District seat, representing parts of Washington Heights and Inwood, discussed transit issues and the state of MTA service last night at a forum sponsored by WE ACT for Environmental Justice and Transport Workers Union Local 100.

On Wednesday, a state Supreme Court judge ruled the Payroll Mobility Tax unconstitutional, saying that because the "budgetary crisis of the MTA is not a substantial state concern," the law required a home rule message from the affected counties. Now, the MTA says it will appeal directly to New York's top court.