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

The S60 bus claims the lowest ridership in the city’s system. For MTA officials, it’s too small to justify the cost. But for some students, it’s the only mass transit option for commuting to school. The route also carries senior citizens up and down a hill that turns treacherous in the winter.

It was one of several cuts that headlined the MTA’s Staten Island public hearing last week.

— Aashish Jethra

Originally posted on the NYC Delegation blog by Colby Hamilton.

Congressman Nadler announced on March 5th that he has secured $156 million in stimulus funding to help complete the new Fulton Street

Transit Center in Lower Manhattan. The new hub is located just blocks from the World Trade Center site but has faced a number of setbacks since its groundbreaking in 2004. From the press release:

“The Fulton Street Transit Center represents a significant new boost to New York City’s subway system, and an important economic development initiative for Lower Manhattan,” said Nadler. “This major project will generate good construction and transit jobs, better connect Downtown’s subway grid, and provide much-need investment in a neighborhood that is still rebuilding since 9/11.”

The facilities are set to open in 2014. The MTA has already used millions of dollars in stimulus funding to help pay for the project.

While the additional $156 million will be welcomed by the state agency, the funding priorities in this situation raise a number of concerns.

The MTA is telling New Yorkers it faces a budget gap of nearly $800 million. To make up the difference, the agency is planning on cutting back service on subways and buses, completely eliminating some routes. New York City school children are also being told at this point that the MTA will stop subsidizing their daily commute.

A spokesperson with Nadler’s office did indicate the congressman was working with the MTA to see how the Federal government could help keep the service cuts from happening. Still, for New Yorkers furious with the state agency over the proposed cuts, putting stimulus funds into a project already way over budget, while kids are being told they’ll have to pay to get to school, could be a situation Congressman Nadler and the MTA find hard to justify to the public.

The public hearings on the MTA’s proposed cuts are over for New York City (there is one more scheduled in Long Island on Monday). The Brooklyn hearing created the most news. We live blogged the event and got dozens of pictures of the altercations that led to the arrests of several audience members. Check out how the contentious evening unfolded in our slideshow:

(note: to see the captions, you have to expand to full screen, by clicking the button in the slideshow’s lower right corner)

— Simone Sebastian

Five people were arrested tonight at the MTA public hearing at the Brooklyn Museum, according to NYC Transit and NYPD officials. They say the people are likely to be charged with misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

The incident started when a young woman tried to take the speakers podium out of turn and got into an altercation with security officials who tried to stop her.

The audience rallied to her defense, prompting intense screaming matches with security. The scene was temporarily chaotic. Order was restored within five minutes and the meeting restarted with a much smaller crowd.

A transit official said some of the people who were arrested are college students. We have no confirmation on the students’ ages. At least two people who spoke during the hearing said that they attended New York high schools.

The audience had gotten increasingly agitated during the night as politicians and their representatives took the podium. Speakers were called to the microphone in the order that they registered. But many audience members shouted out that they wanted to hear from students.

Read more on our live blog from the event.

— Simone Sebastian

Gene Russianoff of NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign at the MTA public hearing in Queens last night.

Stay tuned tonight as we liveblog from both MTA hearings in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Tonight the MTA is holding the first of five public meetings across the city on its proposed service cuts. NYCTracks will be blogging LIVE from the meeting in Flushing, Queens. Another meeting is taking place on Staten Island. Tomorrow’s meetings will be held in Brooklyn and the Bronx, with Thursday’s final meeting being held at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.

It was a busy week for the MTA’s public relations department – and an emotional one for subway workers and riders.

On the up side, the transit agency announced that it was installing more countdown clocks in subway stations and launching a test-run of new security cameras on trains.

And transit chief Thomas Prendergast said he wants to infuse $700 million into station improvements during the next five years.

“I don’t want to say that because of our budget issues, we can’t make improvements,” Prendergast told the Daily News.

Oh yeah…those budget issues. In the same week, the MTA announced it would lay off 15 percent of its subway station agents to save money.

Will New Yorkers agree with the MTA’s priorities? We’ll find out at this week’s public hearings.

Here’s a review of the issues at stake. Let us know where you stand.

– Simone Sebastian

MTA officials admit that work along 2nd Ave has created unforeseen problems with “fragile” buildings amNY reported.

Officials said that they did not properly ensure that buildings along the 9-mile subway line were structurally sound before starting to dig, forcing some tenants to evacuate their homes for weeks.

The MTA pledged to do thorough assessments, particularly of “fragile” buildings, as the construction continues.

“It really proved to be much more problematic and challenging than was originally thought,” Michael Horodniceanu, president of MTA Capital Construction, said recently.

For regular reports on the state of the 2nd Ave line check out the Second Avenue Sagas blog.