Claiming a $1.2 billion operating deficit for 2009 growing to almost $3 billion in 2012, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is considering alternate plans to close the alleged shortfall. The MTA is threatening escalation of subway and bus fares to $2.50 or $3 per individual ride, raising 30 day MetroCards to either $99 or $103 plus similar increases for Express Buses plus higher tolls on bridges and tunnels. These painful commuting and other travel costs scheduled for June are to be combined with drastic service reductions including elimination of some subway and bus routes that involving significant layoffs of MTA workers.

In response, the political establishment has collectively lined up behind an ostensibly less painful plan devised by former MTA head Richard Ravitch, which includes a new payroll tax to be paid by all employers in the 12 county New York City and suburban region served by the MTA. In addition to the payroll tax, which could have a. detrimental effect on the Obama stimulus package, Ravitch’s plan imposes toll fares on heretofore free bridges plus initial subway and bus fare raises of 8 percent followed by annual fare increases based on the rate of inflation… Subway and bus service would remain unchanged at least at the start.

Actually, a reasonable argument could be made that there are alternate solutions eliminating the need for any of the aforementioned more or less painful measures. Under one scenario, the MTA could substitute intelligent engineering options, especially light rail, for two Manhattan Eastside megaprojects, primarily the Second Avenue Subway and secondarily East Side Access. The consequence might not only relieve the necessity of a payroll tax plus fare and toll bridge increases but also release capital funds available for funding long-overdue light rail projects on the North and West Shores of Staten Island and rail extensions to Douglaston-Little Neck Queens and Mill Basin in Brooklyn.

In this respect, the first, 1.7 mile, from 96th to 63rd Street, of the Second Avenue Subway, is expected to cost $4.65 billion, according to figures submitted by the MTA to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Completion in 2015 is expected to relieve drastic overcrowding on the IRT Lexington Avenue Subway line…

Former President Bush pledged a little over $1.3 billion in increments, accounting for 28 .9 percent of the cost. New York State is providing $450 million, 9.7 percent of the cost from the State Transportation Bond Act of 2005. Consequently the MTA is required to finance the remaining nearly $2.9 billion, approximately 61.4 percent, from bonds which involve substantial annual finance costs, toll revenues, fares, service cuts, etc. If this $2.9 billion were available for other purposes besides the Second Avenue Subway,-the need for payroll taxes, higher fares, service reductions and layoffs, would be substantially lessened if not eliminated.

A similar concept can be drawn from analysis of the East Side Access project. Savings of approximately $1.2 billion in construction could be realized by halting excavation by the MTA of a Deep Cavern Station and instead linking Long Island Railroad East River Tunnels directly with five existing platform tracks at Grand Central terminal. (www.irum.org)

The 1.7 mile, $4.65 billion Second Avenue Subway when completed in 2015 would admittedly relieve overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue IRT line. But, almost immediate relief for Lexington Avenue IRT riders could be achieved by allowing use of MetroCards at 11 Metro-North stations in the Bronx and Manhattan.

Further alleviation for Lexington Avenue commuters would be realized in two years by substituting state of art street level boarding light rail on Second Avenue for the Subway at 10 percent of the cost or approximately $500 million.(www.irum.org) This would provide the additional benefit of releasing over $1 billion in FTA capital money pledged by former President Bush for the long-overdue rail extensions on the North and West Shores of Staten Island and to Mill Basin in Brooklyn and Douglaston-Little Neck in Queens: