capital-plan

New Yorker on Ravitch-era capital plans

• Date: June 25, 1984

• Capital plan approved by NY state legislature, June 24, 1981

  • NYT
• 1981 tax plan would come up $250mil short, so the legislature passed a 2-year corporate franchise tax in 1982 to make up the difference
  • This was after the long-lines tax on transportation companies was uncollectible
    • State is not allowed to tax interstate commerce, but they attempted to tax, say, a plane ticket from Albany to Washington's New York state component - also prohibited by federal law - which one?
• Pullman had scandal involving cracked undercarriages on R46s
  • MTA won $72mil judgement from Pullman in December 1981
• Kawasaki and Bombardier deal led to R62s and R62As
• p65 - Cuomo wanted to reorganize MTA board after Bombardier deal - look for source
• Fall 1981 - Metromedia lease
• Dole's bill extended safe harbor leasing for transit to be delivered by 1987 (end of Bombardier bill)
• Enactment of state law barring MTA from bankruptcy after comment from Robert Gerrard, managing director of Dillon Read
• Congress passed measure giving MTA operating control of Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven commuter lines
  • Required $60mil transitional fund
• First capital program increased from $7.2bil to $8.5bil after 1982 federal gas tax increase
• Around time of Ravitch's resignation, Cuomo attempted to reorganize the board so that the chairman would not longer serve 6 year terms, but at the govenor's behest
  • isn't it still this way?
• MTA sued Grumman Flexible due to faulty chassis on buses and had to repay federal money for purchase to the UMTA
• 1983 NRDC report gave rare approval of MTA performance
• New bus depot opened in 1984 in Sunset Park because new buses were too large to enter old one
• After 12th derailment in 1983, red flags were put on track to signal 10mph sections
  • what is speed limit in today's restricted areas?
  • Subway track was supposed to receive two walking inspections a week
• City's water table had risen 10 feet over previous 30 years, sitting tunnels on water rather than ground
• Source: Lardner, James, "Painting the Elephant," The New Yorker, pp42-71, June 25, 1984. link
• Tags: articles capital-plan mta ravitch

From Rescue to Renaissance: The Achievements of the MTA Capital Program 1982 - 2004

• Date: 2004
• Source: nyur
• Tags: capital-plan mta reports

The Road Back - History of MTA capital plan

• Date: 2012
• Source: pcac
• Tags: capital-plan mta reports

The Light at the End of the Subway

• Date: February 1, 1982
• Only 10 subway stations had ever been modernized (as of 1982)
• Capital plan money couldn't be used by law for hiring additional police, but it could fund crime fighting indirectly through safer station design and CCTV
• Staten Island Railroad (here called Staten Island Rapid Transit line) stations to be extended to support four-car trains from three)
• Capital plan included $260mil to replace IRT and BMT power systems
  • Failures cause trains to stall or travel slowly when power is low
• They refer to the capital plan as a "bailout"
• "Fare-box revenues must, in the end, cover most of the principle and interest on the MTA bonds. Thus, depending on how high interest rates are when the bonds are sold, a fare hike may be necessary."
• Ravitch says state reneged on a promise to pay the last installment on a fifteen-year-old Transportation Bond Issue, costing the MTA $90mil
  • I guess this was from 1967?
  • City's annual capital contribution also cut by Koch by $65mil (only a year after hiking it by $65mil)
• $7.9bil capital plan breakdown
  • $3.6bil from new MTA bonds
  • $800mil from Triborough bonds
  • $800mil from new state bond package "guaranteed by the promise of 35 additional years of generous transit aid from Albany"
  • $1.3bil from federal aid
  • $500mil from state aid
  • $400mil from city aid
  • $400mil from "leaseback" <-- safe harbor leasing thingy
• Ravitch says it's difficult to attract good workers when diesel mechanic working for the city gets paid 30% more than one working for the TA
• Koch appointed Ross Sandler as the "new transit watchdog"
  • not sure what statute this resulted from
• Source: nymag
• Tags: articles capital-plan mta