MTA

With each passing month, the MTA comes closer to the day of reckoning on its unfunded capital plan -- the maintenance work that keeps trains and buses running and the expansion projects that provide more access to the system. While the first two years of the 2010-2014 capital budget were funded, there is a $10 billion deficit in the remaining three. So far, there doesn't seem to be any plan from the city, state, or federal government to find this funding. In fact, between the State Senate's goal of repealing the MTA payroll tax and the House GOP's budget-slashing, there may be more obvious paths to the MTA losing revenue than gaining it.

It's sad because it's true.

Nassau County's unwillingness to pay for its own buses is ending in disaster for Long Island Bus riders. The MTA has announced that it plans to cut 25 of the 48 LI Bus lines and axe weekend service on two more.

Over the last decades, the economic geography of New York City has begun to shift. While Midtown and Lower Manhattan remain job centers without peer, more and more of the city's jobs are located outside of the central business districts. As employment shifts into the other boroughs, however, the transit system hasn't shifted with it. That means longer waits and worse service for many New Yorkers, especially for low- and middle-income workers, according to a new report from the Center for an Urban Future.

From the Verrazano to Brooklyn Heights, passengers on the B63 can now make their rides more predictable. As of today, the MTA has launched a new bus tracking system that enables riders to find the location of every bus on the route either online or by text message. For riders who can send texts or check the internet from their phones, there's much less guesswork involved in determining, for instance, whether it will be faster to walk.

It might be naive to think that New York politicians will one day stop accusing the MTA of mismanagement, shady bookkeeping and a lack of transparency. Few have the integrity or willpower to resist such a highly visible and convenient punching bag. But under its current leadership, the MTA continues to show itself to be one of the more accountable public authorities in the state.

The assault on the MTA's already battered finances could now come from yet another front: the federal government. The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives passed a rule Wednesday that would allow reductions in federal transportation spending, including investment in transit. That puts previously secure federal funds on the negotiating table, making it that much harder for the MTA to balance its books.

In a bid to cut costs and improve transit service for New Yorkers with disabilities, the MTA and the Taxi and Limousine Commission will pilot a program to have yellow cabs provide Access-A-Ride service. The program could benefit everyone who rides subways and buses too -- if it proves effective at curbing the cost of Access-A-Ride, the federally-mandated service which has been eating up an increasingly large portion of the MTA's budget and putting strain on other aspects of the transit system.

This just in from the MTA and NYC DOT. Select Bus Service has shaved off between 12 and 16 minutes of travel time on rush hour runs along the M15 corridor from 125th Street to South Ferry. That's before the debut of camera enforcement.