New York City Subway

Even with the Feds potentially spending about $15 billion on mass transit in the next 18 months, the MTA’s proposed big fare hikes and service cuts would still have to happen according to MTA insiders.

That’s because while the amount of money in the stimulus bill for mass transit seems to grow every day, the money is for capital programs — building stuff — not operating systems already up and running.

Last week transit money in the stimulus jumped from $9 billion to $12 billion just before the House passed it’s version. Now Sen. Chuck Schumer wants the Senate version to spend even more — roughly $15 billion if he has his way. Schumer is proposing spending $10.4 billion on capital  programs, $2 billion on rail modifications (improvements to existing systems), and $2.5 billion on so-called “New Starts”.

Note that none of that money would go to pay for the actual costs of running current transit systems (the Feds don’t generally pay operating costs) so all that money would do almost nothing to help the MTA right now. If approved, several billion could be transferred to the MTA but only to be used on current projects like the Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access (LIRR into Grand Central), and the Fulton Transit hub. These are the kind of “shovel-ready” projects the stimulus is designed to tap in order to put the money to use immediately.

To be sure these are important and expensive projects and any increase in Federal dollars will help the MTA in crafting it’s next capital program later this year. But $100 monthly Metrocards and disappearing bus lines are still on track to be implemented because the MTA’s operating budget (passed in December) needs a different kind of help. Operating aid.

Saving the fare and the service depends on actions not in Washington but in Albany where the state legislature (under the guidance of then-Governor George Pataki) forced the MTA to borrow every red cent it spent on buying new trains, rehabbing stations, and rebuilding tracks over the last ten years. The cost of repaying those loans is now staggering and impossible to do with the MTA’s current funding stream.

So forget about DC saving us, it’s up to the often hapless crew in Albany to figure out a new “revenue source” (taxes or tolls) for the MTA that will keep the agancy’s doomsday budget from becoming reality.