NYC - Subway Restorations Continue, Enhanced Rail Service Planned For Monday

Additional subway service is operating on several additional lines today, and Monday morning service on both the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad will offer close to regularly scheduled service as possible as the MTA rail and subway network continues to recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy.
Shortly before Noon, limited service began operating between 179th St and Avenue X, has resumed between Kings Highway and Atlantic Ave-Barclays Center. The Franklin Avenue Shuttle has also been restored. Earlier this morning, train service has been extended south to 14th Street. train service has also been extended and is now running from 241 Street in the Bronx to Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. train service has resumed from 148th Street to New Lots Ave.Limited service has resumed on the line from 205th Street in the Bronx to Bay Parkway in Brooklyn.
Subway service on the and lines was restored Saturday, offering customers increased travel options. In addition, limited service was restored to the Staten Island Railway. Crews are working around the clock to restore other line segments.
MTA Metro-North Railroad resumed full service on all three of its main lines Saturday. Limited service resumed today on the Port Jervis Line, following a week-long suspension due to effects of Hurricane Sandy.There will be four trains in each direction on the Port Jervis Line making all local stops between Port Jervis and Secaucus Junction.Metro-North will resume service on its branch lines east of the Hudson River on Monday morning. The New Canaan Branch in Connecticut, which still has severe tree damage to overhead catenary wires, will be served by buses connecting to train service.
MTA Long Island Rail Road will operate a modified schedule on all branches except the Long Beach branch. Trains on the Ronkonkoma Branch will not operate east of Ronkonkoma, and trains on the Montauk Branch will not operate east of Speonk. With two East River tunnels operated by Amtrak into Penn Station out of service due to flooding, train service must operate at reduced levels.Customers are advised to travel in off-peak hours since trains are expected to be crowded. Modified schedules are posted on this website, customers are advised to consult them to plan their travel.

Credit : MTA.INFO

Higher Fares, Tolls Kick In

Toll and fare increases take effect across the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's system Thursday, but they won't solve the agency's deep fiscal problems.

The agency is aiming to up the revenue it receives from fares and tolls by 7.5%. To do that, it is implementing a set of increases that vary in magnitude. MTA officials said they tried to limit the increase for their lowest-income customers. So 30-day MetroCard users, who tend to be wealthier commuters with stable jobs, will get a fare increase that's almost 10 percentage points higher than the one going to those who use a pay-per-ride card.

That means that the 30-day pass won't be a good buy for some riders anymore. To make a 30-day pass more cost-effective than a pay-per-ride card, a straphanger now needs to use it at least 50 times a month. Under the old fare structure, the rider needed to swipe it 46 times.

The increases come at the end of a difficult year for the MTA. To fill an $800 million gap in its budget created by a shortfall in state taxes, the agency cut subway, bus and commuter rail service in June, laid off workers and embarked on a systemwide cost-cutting push.

The MTA is aiming to up the revenue it receives from fares and tolls by 7.5%.

Still, the size of the increase is in one sense a victory for MTA Chairman and Chief Executive Jay Walder, who trimmed $500 million from the agency's budget. It's the same increase his predecessor agreed to in 2009 as part of a plan to bail out the agency, months before the revenue shortfall appeared.

Even with the increase, the MTA's $11.3 billion 2011 budget sits on shaky ground. It expects to finish the year with just an $8 million surplus. That could easily disappear if state revenue falls off or the agency doesn't achieve the cost savings it expects. Its capital-spending plan, meanwhile, will run out of money at the end of 2011 if the MTA and the state government can't come up with a way to fund it.