NY MTA Bus-Subway Jobs Being Cut, but no fares being raised or service cut

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Gilles Rivet

(The New York Post)

NEW YORK – About 360 maintenance, cleaning, painting and managerial positions will be eliminated in 2010 as part of NYC Transit’s yearly cost cutting.

That means 63 of 1,201 subway-car cleaners and 25 of 1,515 station cleaners will be gone next year, Howard Roberts, the MTA’s subway and bus chief said yesterday.

Between 2009 and 2010, 308 of 2,420 managerial positions at NYC Transit will be cut.

The 2010 cuts will save $37.7 million, but won’t include layoffs. They will come mainly through attrition and job reassignments.

And $5.2 million of the savings will come from eliminating administrative positions, Roberts said.

He added that he cut as many managerial spots as possible.

“I will cut somebody sitting in an office very, very quickly compared to somebody who was out cleaning stations and cleaning cars,” he said.

“But this is the reality of the numbers and the [financial] pressure that we’re under.”

This year, the MTA also began cutting hundreds of station agents and maroon-vested roving station customer assistants, a process that will take years and save millions of dollars more.

Transit watchdog Gene Russianoff said riders will feel the cuts. “The MTA says they can do more with less. In my experience, they usually do less with less,” he said.

(Update AP, July 29)

NEW YORK — The worsening economy is taking a toll on New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, despite a nearly $2.7 billion state bailout.

But the giant transit agency said Wednesday it still expects to keep its promise to state leaders to get through 2010 without raising fares or cutting service.

The MTA said the bailout, cost-cutting and proceeds from recent fare and toll hikes will offset dramatic drops in tax revenue and ridership.

The agency says it expects to get less than half as much real estate tax income this year as it had last year – a projection that has worsened significantly in the last five months. Projected fare and toll collections also are dropping, with ridership off more than 3 percent since last year.

http://www.nypost.com