There’s been a slew of mass transit news since Friday. Here’s your update:

New Yorkers aren’t the only ones concerned about the MTA’s plan to lay off hundreds of station agents. U.S. representatives from other states are calling it a security threat, according to The New York Times.

Finally! The Post is reporting that MTA is soliciting proposals from contractors to install wi-fi at Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station and on the LIRR and Metro-North.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle writes about an old MTA building that leaders say is a blemish on the Downtown Brooklyn’s resurgence.

Politicians from the Northern suburbs are calling for an end to the MTA’s payroll tax, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal.

It’ll be news the day that there’s not a rumor that the MTA is contemplating a fare hike. Today is not that day. The Post has a story on the latest fare-hike rumblings.

The 7 train is back – early! The Queens Courier has the announcement.

You have news that we missed? Let us know. Leave a comment or send an email to nyctracks@gmail.com.

I spotted this ad on the 3 train while riding to the Brooklyn public hearing earlier this month. It was the first time I had seen it since…well…probably 2008.

Two things struck me: 1) it’s obviously outdated and 2) it compares the 1986 standard fare to the reduced fare offered by the 2008 monthly MetroCard, which doesn’t seem fair. It made me wonder how cheap is it, really, to ride the subway these days?

Using the MTA’s comparison, a single ride is actually more expensive today than it was in 1986. One dollar back then is equal to $1.98 today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s 27 cents less than the cost of a single ride now.

Of course, the MetroCard is a big help — if you are a commuter. To bring a ride back down to the 1986 price, you have to take 45 subway or bus trips per month.

* graph is based on standard adult single-ride rail fares

It’s difficult to compare New York’s mass transit fares to the other metro rails around the world. It’s one of few that do not have distance-based fares. But it is in line with Chicago and Paris, which also have set rates.

Take our poll and let us know what you think about New York City’s mass transit fares.

— Simone Sebastian

After some logistical problem were solved, room-changing and press,citizens and council members crossing a very rainy Broadway down town, the transportation and education committee was gathered, Friday, to discuss the proposed cuts of Metro cards for students.
NYC Tracks was there:

— Dana Rapoport and Colby Hamilton

NYCTracks’s exclusive interviews with Councilmen Charles Barron and James Vacca before the March 13 city council meeting on the MTA’s proposed cuts for student MetroCards.

— Colby Hamilton

Video: New York City Council takes on the MTA from NYCtracks.com on Vimeo.

The City Council’s transportation and education committees held a joint hearing to question the MTA on the elimination of free student MetroCards. The audience was surprisingly sparse, considering the passion witnessed at previous hearings on the MTA cuts. But some of the council members were riled up. We have a three-minute video summary of the two-hour meeting.

— Simone Sebastian

Follow our live blog from the New York City Council Committee on Transportation meeting. Four reporters will bring you news, interviews, pictures and commentary.

NYCtracks. com has learned that a woman was killed in an accident on the No. 6 train route earlier today. According to The New York Times, the 48 -year old-woman was trying to recover a bag that had fallen onto the tracks at the 77th Street station when she was struck by a No. 6 train.  The New York Times has more on the story.

In what seems like a weeklong hangover after last week’s exciting MTA hearings, most news coverage is focused on the hearings themselves and the news that some bus lines may not be cut after all (here and here).

However, the New York Daily News is reporting that cuts will include 450 token booth positions.

Also, as editors of the Hidden Tracks column, we would be remiss if we did not point you to an excellent blog entry on the history of station closures and the contemporaneous press’ reaction to such closures.  Seems like New Yorkers weren’t always as vocal about the reduction of service.  However, such a uncharacteristicly muted response probably had more to do with the fact that the system overall was developing (the article talks about closure of ‘short’ subway stations to make way for the more modern, longer trains).

On Friday your crew of reporters will be back reporting MTA news in action.  Look for our live blog coverage of the City Council Committee Meeting, starting tomorrow at 1:00PM.  We will have interviews, pictures and — of course —  commentary.

The New York Transit Museum is hosting an exhibit of archeological artifacts found during construction of the new South Ferry Terminal.  The exhibit, which will open in the Transit Museum’s Annex at Grand Central station on March 18th, should help give a picture of life in lower Manhattan during the 18th and 19th century.

The museum will display a myriad of clay pipes (a common household item before the cigarette became popular), household crockery, wall tiles and various other artifacts associated with New York long before the MTA.  The artifacts were discovered during the construction of the new South Ferry Terminal. The new station was built while the original 1905-era South Ferry Terminal was still in use, which created the need for an enlarged construction foot-print, which in turn led to the discovery of the artifacts.

–Christopher F. Schuetze

Cameras catch the action during the public hearing at FIT last week.

Last week we saw angry transit riders across the city vent their frustrations to MTA board members sitting stoically on stages in every borough. Straphangers were furious over proposed service cuts, inter-borough bridge tolls and the MTA’s decision to stop paying for New York City student MetroCards.

The student cards have been a major issues on blogs and in articles. While local politicians have been wagging their fingers at the MTA, a number of transit advocates have suggested to NYCTracks over the last week that, between the city and state, the political pressure will ultimately be too intense for either City Hall or Albany to allow student cards to get cut.

How is that possible? Well, for one, if you look at the history of student MetroCards you see a trend of sorts. It’s important to understand that, since 1948, school kids in New York City have been receiving free and discounted rides. The city’s subways and buses are, in effect, its yellow school buses (and what a bargain they are).

This also isn’t the first time budget crunches have put student cards on the chopping block. In 1994, Mayor Giuliani told the MTA and state legislators that the city couldn’t afford to pay the agency $128 million to cover the kids’ subway rides (in truth the state was reimbursing the city $69 million so NYC was only cover the difference). A deal was reached between the city, the state and the MTA in 1995: the cost of providing kids free public transportation was split three ways, $45 million each.

And that’s exactly how much New York City has paid to the MTA to move its school children to and from school since 1995. $45 million each year. Just to put that in perspective, the projected 2011 budget for New York City is over $66 billion. The total cost today, according to the MTA: $214 million per year. So this three-way split now means the MTA itself is financing $124 million worth of student MetroCards.

From the MTA: projected costs of student MetroCards

To be fair, the city–facing its own budget gap that it must, by law, balance in its budget–has continued to pay its agreed upon share while the state has slashed funding by almost half. Still, it is becomingly increasingly difficult for state and local lawmakers to scold the MTA on this issue without looking like hypocrites.

Not that every politician is behaving badly. Some, like City Council Speaker Quinn and Councilman Vacca, who chairs the council’s transportation committee, have stated publicly that the city council is willing to work with the MTA to find ways to keep from having to make the cuts. State legislators have also indicated to NYCTracks directly that they were determined to find room in the budget for student MetroCards.

But the real question is, how can they not?

550,000 NYC students get subsidized MetroCards. That means, theoretically, over a million parents who would be told they had to pay to get their kids to school. From a practical political standpoint, student MetroCards might be the buck that can’t get passed for New York politicians.

— Colby Hamilton