Now class... (Matt Chaban)

Call him Professor Joe Lhota.

At MTA headquarters this morning, the transit agency’s chairman unveiled a fare and toll increase plan for next year that raises all travel costs by about 7 percent across the system, raising $450 million for the agency for the next two years.

For straphangers, this means monthly MetroCards could rise anywhere from $4 to $21, up to $125 per month. The cheaper monthlies would pair with a rise in the base fare to $2.50 and no bonus on the $10 MetroCard, while the most expensive monthly would retain the bonus and the current base fare of $2.25. Two more fare schemes, with a range of price increases across the various MetroCard offerings are also on offer, and Mr. Lhota predicts the end result will fall somewhere in between.

The key in determining exactly what the fares should be is education, he said. "There's a real education aspect to the MTA, to getting people to use the best fares," Mr. Lhota said. For example, one-third of all riders who buy a monthly pass do not reach the 50 rides it takes each month to break even on the $104 passes. Though convenience may also play a factor—buy the thing once a month or get it from work and forget about it.

What's the best fare plan? (MTA)

Mr. Lhota said he had no preference for a fare plan, nor had he conferred with the board about which plan they preferred. "We've had a number of briefings, five, I believe, and I didn't even ask. We want to respect the process and hear from the public first."

But the chairman did give the distinct impression he was leaning toward raising the base fare and keeping some form of bonus for the $10 MetroCard. "I prefer something in between," he said, also emphasizing the fact that the four plans were provisional, and a mixture of possible ideas were possible after consultation with the board and the public. Among the reasons for increasing the base fare, Mr. Lhota pointed out that only 15 percent of all riders buy a single ride, so raising it would effect the fewest people. Among riders making less than $25,000, though, 39 percent of riders

"It shouldn't be 15 percent, it should be significantly lower than that," Mr. Lhota said. It is an unusual argument, since the greater the ridership discounts, the less money the MTA makes. But Mr. Lhota said profits are not his goal. "It's important to educate the ridership so they don't have to pay the full amount," Mr. Lhota added. "I want to get as many riders using the discount as possible."

Yum! (Gothamist)

A month ago, NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign's first "State of the Station Platforms" was published, outlining the prevalence of twelve conditions down under the streets. The issues ranged from broken light fixtures to rats to garbage accessibility. It was an honest assessment: Subway platforms were not in the best condition, but they weren't in the worst, either.

But an MTA official thinks quite differently about the cleanliness and conditions. "I mean you could practically eat off the floor there," Government Affairs Director Hilary Ring told the audience at a City Council Transportation Committee hearing, the Post reported.

The Daily News sought out some individuals to interview and asked whether they would eat off the floor:

"Ew!" Erica Lang, 27, a student from Manhattan said. "I wouldn't walk barefoot on the floor.

I wonder what she thinks about the performers that slide, tumble, and roll on the floors of the subway and cars.

"I think it's clean enough, relatively speaking," said Craig Slutzkin, 37, an accountant from Manhattan.

Relative to what? A 70s Soho loft?

The worst part is that the $900 million generated from fare hikes in 2013 and 2015 will not be spent on service improvement, and subway cleaning, but instead to pay for rising pension.

Though, if you look on the bright side, there's a 50% chance that you will be eating under a broken light fixture, so you won't really be able to see crawled into your sandwich.

mewing@observer.com

A horrible stench had overtaken the downtown-bound subway car.

The smell of death?

In fact, the beleaguered W train may soon be put out of its misery.

It’s one of two city subway lines and 16 bus routes that the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority has threatened to eliminate—among various other cost-cutting and fund-raising measures—if Albany doesn’t chip in to help cover the transit system’s expected $1.2 billion budget deficit.

If the proposed cuts proceed as planned, the W’s exit would somewhat coincide with that of the outgoing U.S. president, with whom it appropriately shared an initial, an era (2001-2008) and dismal approval ratings.

The aptly named Dubya is the worst-ranked of all 21 city subway lines rated annually by the transit advocacy group, the Straphangers Campaign, using M.T.A. data—a dubious distinction the loathsome line has earned for the past three years running.

Offering “the least amount of daytime service” and arriving “with below-average regularity,” W trains are also “less clean” and “break down more often” than average. Every 87,001 miles or so, in fact, the W is delayed by some type of mechanical failure. The average subway car makes it nearly twice that far (149,646 miles) before faltering.

Not that subway riders probably expect much. It is, after all, the rusty, supplemental third-string quarterback of the M.T.A.’s current yellow-coded Broadway-line roster, providing a less capable but basically dependable backup to the N line in Queens, the R line in Manhattan and, in some spots, the Q.

Even the most jaded subway grumps can take at least some comfort in the fact that, if the “Never” or “Rarely” train lets you down, the “Worst” train will be there. Eventually. Albeit only on weekdays—and never later than 11 at night.

Yet, for all the inconvenience, W riders are slightly more likely to find a seat during rush hour, a significant upside that makes the specter of the train’s possible shuttering a veritable fustercluck in the making.

Without the W, will the overburdened N and R trains suddenly become as bone-crushingly overcrowded as the No. 6?

“That’s a scary thought,” said Long Island City resident Matthew Principe as he prepared to board a relatively empty Manhattan-bound W train at Queensboro Plaza on Monday morning.

Like many W riders polled for this article, Mr. Principe appeared resigned to that fate, noting that in some subway stations, it seemed W signs were already being replaced.

Mr. Principe said he would simply make do with whatever other yellow-line train came along first; the Q train, for instance, which, under the M.T.A.’s plan, would ultimately be extended to Astoria in order to cover any gaps in the former W service area.

Riders of other subway lines and bus routes have been a lot more vocal in railing against the proposed cuts.

At a public hearing last week, an outspoken contingent of angry, placard-wielding demonstrators loudly bemoaned the potential demise of the popular M8 crosstown bus. Meanwhile, at the Fulton Street subway station in Lower Manhattan, a mock funeral was held to memorialize the similarly condemned Z train.

No such love for the doomed W.

“It’s been at the bottom of the barrel,” admitted Straphangers Campaign spokesman Gene Russianoff, who delivered last week’s Z eulogy, borrowing heavily from Psalm 23: “… goodness and mercy shall follow the Z in all its days …”

Despite the many lyrical possibilities that the W’s own various eccentricities could certainly provide for his musings, Mr. Russianoff said he had no immediate plans to similarly memorialize the other extinction-bound train.

But that’s not to say that the Dubya is not worth saving. “As much fun as we poke at these lines, for most people, it’s their lifeline to their jobs,” Mr. Russianoff said. “They have lots of complaints about them, but it’s like someone you’ve been married to for 25 years,” he added, laughing. “There are good points and bad points.”

Noted subway aficionado and amateur historian David Pirmann outlined the W’s potentially short lifespan as one of once-vast potential, formerly running all the way from Astoria to Coney Island, but lately, diminishing returns: The limited service at present halts at Whitehall Street.

“I think it will be missed when local riders along Broadway and in Astoria realize their train interval just got halved!” wrote Mr. Pirmann in an email. “Otherwise, probably not, it didn’t serve any particularly unique routing (mostly the same as the N + R).”

cshott@observer.com

"The L ranked highest because it performs best in the system on two measures—regularity of service and announcements—and well above average on three other measures: frequency of scheduled service, delays caused by mechanical breakdowns and the percentage of dirty cars," a statement released today by Straphangers said.

"The line did not get a higher rating because it performed well below average on: a chance of getting a seat during rush hour."

The 7 line came in second place with above average ratings in all categories except for the percentage of dirty cars and adequate announcements.

The Q train rounded out the top three, followed by last year's top-rated line, the 1 and then the 6. The J/Z, 5, 2, 3, and 4 also ranked in the top 10.

At the bottom of the list is the W, which ranked below average in all measures of service except for the chance of getting a seat during rush hour. So basically, its such a bad train that no one rides it.

Overall, the state of the subway is not very good, according to the report's findings.

“Riders on the L and 7 are benefiting from more independent managers and more resources, but the subway system as a whole performs weakly,” said Gene Russianoff, the Straphangers Campaign's senior attorney, in a statement. “Most troubling is the widespread increase in subway car breakdowns – on 17 of the 22 subway lines – which cause delays and inconvenience for hundreds of thousands of riders.”

“The congestion pricing plan proposed by Mayor Bloomberg failed to gain approval in the State Legislature in the spring,” said Kellner, who was a vocal proponent of congestion pricing. "Neither the plan’s supporters nor its critics seem to have a firm idea of what to do next.”

Before introducing the panelists, he explained that they had invited a representative from the M.T.A. (“Just so it didn’t seem like we were M.T.A.-bashing"), but the authority “chose not to participate.”

The evening's guests included labor lawyer Theodore Kheel (later introduced as “a great hero from the last century in mass transit”), Gene Russianoff of the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and Jeffrey Zupan from the Regional Plan Association. They sat onstage in front of an audience of about 40, passing two semi-effective microphones back and forth.

“I personally supported congestion pricing as well as the millionaires' tax,” Kellner said, “because I believe New York is really facing a traffic and mass transit crisis requiring decisive action.”

He then passed both microphones to Kheel, who is 93 years old, and whose past in New York’s transit agencies is legendary. Kheel also made headlines recently when he proposed using revenue from congestion pricing to make mass transit totally free.

On the politics of congestion pricing, Kheel said, “The promotion, I thought, was in the wrong order. If you start out with free transit, you start out with something people would welcome.”

Russianoff said, “The M.T.A. is in the middle of a gigantic financial crisis. I don’t believe they’re crying wolf, I believe they have tremendous problems.”

He went on to say that only once before, in 1980 and '81, were there fare hikes during consecutive years (as there likely will be in 2007 and 2008) and that the M.T.A. is the fifth largest borrower in the U.S.

Jeffery Zupan took the microphone and said with some amusement, “The M.T.A. is in deep doo-doo right now and it’s only going to get worse."

After the panel, Zupan told me he thought Bloomberg was brave to have raised the issue of congestion pricing. "People thought it was politically impossible,” Zupan commented.

He thinks the problem was in the timing.

“It was kept pretty secret, so it dropped, with PlaNYC, like a bombshell, because they didn’t share thinking."

I caught Kellner on his way out and asked him about Bloomberg's legacy.

“The two things he’s going to be known for as mayor are going to be more tickets and garbage trucks,” Kellner said. Later, he added that he would also be remembered for "things falling out of the sky.”

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.

According to Straphangers, the MTA is the fifth largest debtor in the nation, behind California, New York State and City, and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, each year, $2 billion of the MTA's $10 billion operating budget goes to "debt service," or paying off the tens of billions of dollars of bonds it has issued to fund transit repairs.

Straphangers' statement below:

STATEMENT ON A POSSIBLE MTA FARE INCREASE Thursday, June 12, 2008

Subway and bus riders and suburban commuters were just hit with fare increases in March, three months ago! But now the MTA is warning that it's facing a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars next year and that the agency may have a large deficit in 2009, putting pressure on the fare and service.

At the same time, the MTA has a shortfall of an astonishing $17 billion in its next five-year rebuilding program, running from 2009 to 2013.

Governor Paterson has just appointed a 12-member panel to make recommendations on the MTA's finances for the next decade. Their report is due December 5, 2008. Whatever action Governor Paterson and the MTA takes, they must address both the operating and the capital needs of the transit system at the same time. A fare increase - without new money to operate and fix the system - would be a slap in the face to millions of riders.

"Proposing a fare hike before the Ravitch Panel reports would be something out of Alice in Wonderland: first the execution, then the trial," said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign.

New York riders already have the highest fare box burden in the nation, paying 55% of New York City Transit's costs. That's compared to an average 40% of for the country's large transit systems.

The single fastest growing expense for the MTA is "debt service," which in plain English is money to pay off the tens of billions of dollars of bonds it issued to repair the transit system. The MTA is the fifth largest debtor in the nation, behind California, New York State and City, and Massachusetts. Each year, two billion dollars of the MTA's ten billion dollar operating budget goes to pay off these bonds..

The MTA could close these gaps either with new government aid or fare and toll increases, along with administrative efficiencies and service cuts. "Cutting service now while ridership is swelling makes no sense," said Russianoff.

On the whole, the results will probably not do much to brighten an otherwise gloomy day for subway passengers—unless you happen to ride the L or the 7. Between Sept. 20, 2007, and Jan. 11, 2008, Straphangers inspected 2,200 subway cars on 22 lines and found that half were “clean," up from 47 percent when the last survey was conducted in 2005.

Subway cars were rated on the cleanliness of floors and seats, according to the M.T.A.’s official standards. The ones that were "basically dirt free" or had "light dirt"—"occasional 'ground-in' spots but generally clean"—were rated clean.

The survey found nine lines had improved noticeably (2, 7, B, E, G, J/Z, L, M, and V); six had deteriorated (3, 4, 6, C, D, and Q); and seven lines remained basically unchanged (1, 5, A, F, N, R, and W).

The L—which transports gaggles of young professionals and quasi-hipsters from Union Square to Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg—was by far the best-performing line, with 88 percent of its cars rated clean, up from 61 percent two years ago. The second best line was the 7, with 78 percent clean cars up from 22 percent clean cars in 2005.

The worst performing lines were the E and Q, each of which had only 29 percent clean cars. This was still a marked improvement for the E compared to two years ago, when only only 2 percent of its cars rated clean.