The M.T.A. did not seem to notice the chorus of boos that erupted across the city from public officials and subway riders alike upon hearing news of a potential 8 percent fare hike next year, because today the agency went even further.

City Room reports that the M.T.A. will also request at its Friday board meeting an additional 5 percent increase to take effect by January 2011 — for a cumulative increase of 13.4 percent over 18 months.

The M.T.A. argues that raising fares is the only way to deal with a projected $900 million budget gap. Though dissenters at the "contentious" meeting today claimed that there's more fat to trim on the M.T.A.'s budget.

Stayed tuned for the outcome on Friday.

When Peter Eide moved to Clinton Hill, he had a "fantastical" idea.

The sculptor had spent 12 years moving around the borough after arriving from Philadelphia: Greenpoint, Williamsburg, back to Clinton Hill. But Mr. Eide, now 37, never strayed far from the G train, the only subway line in the city that doesn't travel through Manhattan. And he never stopped thinking of that idea he had: to connect his neighborhood G train stop, Fulton Street, to the Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street transit hub, effectively linking the line to almost a dozen other routes.

The fantastical part? A 660-foot tunnel buried under Fort Greene.  read more »

A panel of transportation advocates held on the Upper West Side on Thursday night reached a predictable consensus:

“The M.T.A. is in deep doo-doo right now and it’s only going to get worse," according to the Regional Plan Association's Jeffrey Zupan.

More on the panel from Em Whitney at The Politicker.

The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted unanimously today to rescind the free E-ZPass privileges of former board members, their families, and the families of current board members.

"They can't exempt themselves from the very policies ... that they're asking the riders to bear," Gene Russianoff, attorney for transit advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign, said, referring to fare hikes.

The decision came after close to an hour and a half of deliberations behind closed doors. Fifty-two former board members and 34 current members will be affected.

And at least one of them is upset. Warren S.  read more »

Here are the subway stations (and the lines they service) where the M.T.A. has proposed delaying improvements:

• Four on the Pelham line (the 6 train)
• Four on the Sea Beach line that were to occur in late 2009 (the N train)
• 10 stations on the West End line (the D and M trains);
• The Smith-9th Street station on the Culver line (F and G trains)

At a public hearing on Monday afternoon, M.T.A. officials proposed a new set of amendments (PDF) to the struggling agency's capital program for 2005-09.

"I certainly believe that riders should be concerned about what we're looking at," M.T.A. Executive Director Elliot Sander said.

Advocates reacted with disappointment and worry to the news that the G train will not receive the service increases that the Metropolitan Transit Authority promised riders in February.

"The M.T.A. has done a grave injustice to G train riders and commuters in Brooklyn if it fails to enact service enhancements," said State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn. In May, Mr. Jeffries and others launched a campaign to pressure the M.T.A. to increase the G's frequency and to restore its four-car trains to six cars.

"The M.T.A. seems to be primarily in the business of broken promises," Teresa Toro of Save the G said today.  read more »

Not exactly. But close. The Times' William Neuman reports this morning that the perennially put-upon G Train will not be part of a round of scaled-back service improvements:

One line that had been scheduled for more service in the original proposal last December but was not included in this round of improvements was the G. Riders on the G often complain of long waits between trains. Officials said the G did not exceed the loading guidelines.

The M.T.A.'s decision will, of course, annoy many G Train riders, not least those who kicked off a campaign in May to improve service.

It only took three weeks for the MTA to “postpone” the service upgrades promised after the March fare hikes, so we were skeptical when officials told frustrated straphangers that the package might be approved in June if the MTA’s financial situation improved.

MTA Executive Director Lee Sander said Wednesday that the transportation authority faced an operating deficit of as much as $500 million to $700 million next year—mainly due to a dip in real estate tax revenue and the rising costs of fuel—and warned that if Albany did pitch in more money to fill the gap, the burden would fall on passengers.

But, according to a statement issued today by riders advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign, New Yorkers already pay 55 percent of the city's transit costs, giving them the highest fare burden in the nation. In other large transit networks, fares account for an average of 40 percent of operating budgets.  read more »

Governor Paterson today announced the creation of a new panel to help find money to keep the M.T.A. afloat and running, as the agency is facing a tremendous shortfall in needed funding for the coming years.

The panel, led by Dick Ravitch, boasts infrastructure pros, the respective budget directors for the state and the city, the CEO of Con Edison, developer Douglas Durst, M.T.A. executive director Lee Sander, and the director of the Port Authority in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Peter Goldmark, among others.

Transit advocates and some officials widely expect the panel to recommend some sort of combination of increases in taxes and fees, perhaps locally, perhaps statewide; perhaps a combination. The fiscal woes of the M.T.A.—it’s upcoming five-year capital program is expected to be somewhere around $17 billion short of the $30 billion or so desired—could lead to service and upkeep setbacks if the money is not found [more here on this issue].  read more »