Doomsday Budget Take II: MTA plans bus and subway service cuts
By Staten Island Advance
December 11, 2009, 10:42AM
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The MTA is at it again.
Just months after its "doomsday" budget was avoided, the transit agency is again looking to cut service after news broke recently that its budget shortfall is projected to be $343 million in 2010.
Chairman Jay Walder has said he doesn't plan any fare or toll increases next year.
So now two subway lines -- the W and Z trains -- could be cut and four stations would be closed overnight under a plan expected to be presented to an MTA committee on Monday, the Daily News reported.
A number of bus lines could also be eliminated, though it's not known which ones are being considered for the chopping block.
New York state cut transit funding by $143 million and the amount from the new state payroll tax will come in about $200 million short of what had been forecast.
"We're not going to rely on anyone else to do anything for us. We're going to rely on ourselves," MTA board member Mitchell Pally told the paper.
There was no comment from the MTA.
Cortlandt Street is one of the stations proposed to lose night service

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority is proposing to make service cuts to close its expected US$343 million (€234m, GBP £211m) budget deficit.  The plan includes the elimination of multiple bus lines in The Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, the elimination of the W (Astoria, Queens to Lower Manhattan) and the Z (Jamaica, Queens to Lower Manhattan via Brooklyn) train services.  Also included in the plan are cuts of nighttime bus and train service.

"We're not going to rely on anyone else to do anything for us. We're going to rely on ourselves." MTA board member Mitchell Pally said, commenting on the New York state's budget plan cutting $143 million of tax revenue from the agency.  MTA Chairman Jay Walder has said in the past that he would not raise fares ahead of schedule.

Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign, a commuter advocacy group, said that the agency should take money from its current construction and maintenance fund, and put it into maintaining these services.