The MTA and a group of Democratic leaders warned that a federal transportation bill would strip the agency of an important revenue stream and lead to skyrocketing fares.

"Mass transit shouldn't be a stepchild," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) said Sunday of the GOP-backed legislation.

Congress is expected to vote on the Surface Transportation Authorization bill in the next two weeks.

Nadler said, if passed, it would end the guaranteed funding that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other mass transit systems currently receive from the gasoline tax.

Federal gas tax funds have been used for both public highways and transit since 1983.

Under the bill, the tax is expected to generate $25 billion over five years, but mass transit would not get a piece of the money.

It's unclear how much the MTA would lose, but Nadler said the bill would make longer-term projects impossible to fund.

Instead, he said, the MTA would have to rely on the highly political appropriations process.

"They're saying that mass transit isn't as important as highways," he said.

"We have 8.5 million people per day coming into the city on mass transit."

Nadler said fares would likely increase under the bill.

"All these systems have to pay for the capital budget," he said. "You gotta maintain the system. If you don't have enough money, you gotta raise fares."

MTA Chief Joe Lhota also wrote to Congress warning that lost funding would "result in degraded service."

A key House Committee is threatening to kill three decades of successful investments in mass transit - originally started under President Ronald Reagan - by ending the guarantee for dedicated funding for public transportation, leaving millions of riders already faced with service cuts and fare increases out in the cold.

In a stunning development late last night, House leadership and the Ways and Means committee made a shocking attack on transit that would have huge impacts for the millions of people who depend on public transportation each day.

They proposed putting every public transportation system in immediate peril by eliminating guaranteed funding for the Mass Transit Account and forcing transit to go begging before Congress for general funds each year - all while highway spending continues to be guaranteed with protected funds for half a decade at a time.

Get involved. Can you take just a moment and tell your representative that this short-sighted idea is intolerable for their voters?

This incredible move would roll back 30+ years of bipartisan federal transportation policy and reverse a decision made by President Reagan in the 1980's to fund our nation's transit system out of a small share of gas tax revenues. This change would mean no more guarantee of funding each year and no long-term stability for public transportation. States, cities, communities and their transit systems could lose billions.

We released a statement earlier today decrying this unprecedented attack on transit: "We are deeply concerned that if this measure passes, Americans who use public transportation, or who would like that option in the future, will be thrown under the bus," said James Corless, director of Transportation for America. "This couldn't come at a worse time for people who need an affordable, reliable way to get to work, or for employers who need workers." Corless noted the demand for transit has been rising as the economy slowly recovers and people are using public transportation to get to jobs and to avoid volatile gas prices. Over the course of the five-year transportation program, America's population will continue to age rapidly, and a growing number of seniors will be looking to transit services maintain their independence.

It's not just us, though. Even the association of state DOT heads submitted a letter to the committee urging them to reconsider their ill-advised plan.

The Mass Transit Account has been in existence since 1982 and AASHTO has continuously supported this account as a critical component of the Highway Trust Fund. AASHTO has long supported the principle that 20 percent of the gas tax revenues that have been put in place since 1982 be allocated to a dedicated mass transit account. We believe that the two complementary accounts need to be maintained in order to support a well-funded, multimodal transportation system.

We respectfully request that the current Highway Trust Fund structure with its two accounts and respective revenue allocations be retained.

Transit is unquestionably a critical component of our nation's transportation system, and one that millions of people (or voters, if you're reading, committee members) depend on each day to get around. More people on transit means less congestion, less pollution, and fewer cars on the road.

Tell your representative that this unprecedented attack on transit won't stand.

Negotiators for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its largest employee union will meet Thursday to resume talks on a new contract, two weeks after union officials shut off negotiations over leaks to the press.

The meeting will be the first face-to-face negotiations with MTA since John Samuelsen, the president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, stormed out of a meeting with management and publicly denounced MTA officials for "bargaining in bad faith."

At issue was this Jan. 19 story from the Daily News, which laid out the terms that MTA officials would be seeking from the union at that day's negotiating session. The MTA was willing to offer 1% annual raises, but only if workers accepted work rule changes worth $150 million.

Samuelsen was apoplectic.

"You had bus operators, track workers, signal maintainers reading the newspaper today with a better grasp of what the MTA was going to do with the negotiation than the negotiating committee of the union and the leadership of the union," he said at a press conference after leaving the meeting. "That is an outrage and that is bargaining in bad faith by definition."

Since then, the sides have played nicer and have avoided negotiating in the press.

In a question-and-answer session with reporters last week, MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota refused to comment on the status of talks with TWU, whose contract for its 34,000 workers expired Jan. 15. The chairman did note, however, that he and Samuelsen have called each other frequently.

"I speak to John almost every day," Lhota said.

(NY Daily News - 1/31/12)

It has been a long time since anyone - except his mother - called Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen cute, but he deserves the description today.

Not cheek-squeezing cute, but game-playing cute.

Amid contentious labor negotiations, Samuelsen called on subway drivers to enter stations "with extra care," raising the possibility of slower trains and longer trips for riders. The union said it was handing out flyers only because three people had been killed on the tracks over a single weekend this month.

Samuelsen crafted the leaflets to emphasize safety first, last and always, so he will get no arguments on that score from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority or anyone else. That said, he none too subtly reminded the city of his members' ability to make life miserable if talks grind to a halt.

To this point, Samuelsen has proceeded with muscular prudence. While his members are steeped in the ethos of no-contract-no-work, hard realities stare him in the face.

With governments at all levels deeply in the red, Gov. Cuomo won state contracts that include zero raises for three years, and Mayor Bloomberg is following the pattern. The MTA must hold the same line to avoid slamming riders with still more fare increases or service cuts.

Both would inevitably result if the MTA relented, as a new analysis by the Citizens Budget Commission makes clear. The public is in no mood for either, nor will riders have the patience for a pains-in-the-neck rule book slowdown.

There's light at the end of Samuelsen's tunnel: He can purchase raises by finding productivity measures that save the MTA an equivalent amount of money. Sooner or later in this political and financial landscape, he'll see that train pull into the station.

(NY Post - 1/30/12 - By JENNIFER FERMINO Transit Reporter)

A high-ranking MTA superintendent instituted a quota on the number of disciplinary violations that his underlings must dole out to subway workers each month - infuriating the agency's largest union in the midst of tense contract negotiations, The Post has learned.

The quota order is likely to rekindle the still-simmering tensions from the 2005 holiday-season transit strike - staged in large part because the union accused the MTA of a disciplinary crackdown.

Now, the directive e-mailed to subway supervisors Wednesday by New York City Transit Superintendent Anthony Bartolotta will likely fuel old tensions between the agency and Transport Workers Union Local 100.

In the e-mail, obtained by The Post, Bartolotta informed his staffers - who oversee conductors and train operators on the F, G, Q, N and B lines - of the new policy demanding supervisors submit five violations against workers per month.

"Until further notice all TSS (train-service supervisors) personnel in District 3 will be required to submit 5 violations per month," he wrote. Union chiefs are now accusing the MTA of playing dirty during contract negotiations.

"It's like psychological warfare," said Kevin Harrington, a TWU vice president. "To me, it's just bad management."

The MTA quickly disavowed the e-mails, saying they were the work of a single employee, and vehemently denied ever endorsing quotas.

"There are absolutely no quotas," said spokesman Kevin Ortiz. "This directive was not sanctioned by senior management, and has already been rescinded."

Still, the e-mail couldn't have come at a worse time. The TWU launched its illegal strike in 2005, citing, among other things, what the union considered an unncessary crackdown.

The latest e-mail called for TSS personnel - who are not TWU members - to write up conductors and operators who are TWU members for "minor," "moderate" or "severe" infractions.

Minor infractions can lead to a worker getting fired, since each citation is added to previous ones. If someone's first citation is considered severe, that person could get fired if he or she commits a minor offense within 12 months.

Minor violations include such things as an undone tie or not wearing a work vest. A moderate infraction includes a conductor not pointing at the ceiling when pulling into a station, which indicates that he or she has lined up the train at the platform. A severe infraction can be for opening train doors while not in a station.

In 2002, transit-agency supervisors issued more than 16,000 citations for a workforce of 36,000. That number eventually dropped after the strike, but the bitter feelings remain.

During the current contract talks, TWU President John Samuelsen has lashed out at the MTA for disciplinary crackdowns. He calls the MTA's tactics an "1880s-railroad style of discipline."

"Elimination of that system is a primary objective (of negotiations)," Samuelsen said.

(Taken From SI Advance 1/11/12 by Michael Sedon)

Now Staten Islanders will never have to wonder where their bus is or how much longer they will have to wait because the answer is just a click away. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the introduction of Bus Time today, at the Eltingville Transit Center, as Staten Island will be the first borough to have the service implemented on all of its buses.

"MTA Bus Time is up and running throughout the entire borough of Staten Island," said MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota, who visited the Island his second day on the job to make the announcement. "This means you can get real-time information for every bus and route on this Island right on your cell phone or right on your computer."

Bus Time is an internet-based service that allows users to access real-time information via their cell phones, smart phones or computers that can tell them exactly how far away their bus is.

"We know how important bus service is to all of the citizens of Staten Island," Lhota said of the agency's reason for making Staten Island the first borough-wide application of the technology. "Instead of waiting out in the cold for a bus that's a mile away, instead of leaving home early only to wait at a bus stop -- just not knowing -- MTA Bus Time will be able to tell you exactly where your bus is."

Commuters can visit mta.info/bustime online where they will see a window to type in a bus route, intersection or a specific bus stop code that will then prompt a map to show where all the buses on that route are and, more importantly, how far away the next one is that will arrive.

"Any computer with an internet connection can take you to our Bus Time website, and there you'll be able to see a map with moving images representing the real-time location of buses moving along that route," said New York City Transit President Thomas Pendergast. "During this year and next we will upgrade more than 6,000 buses and over 14,000 bus stops system-wide in order to make Bus Time formally operational, city-wide in 2013."

The bus stop codes could be found at the specific stops, or by going the Bus Time home page and simply dragging the mouse over the desired stop, which will then display its code. Once straphangers have the bus stop code they could text it to 511123 on their cell phones, and the MTA will text back how many stops away the next bus is that will be picking up at that stop.

"We power the text messaging side of this, which allows people to text in their bus stop code and will immediately receive back information about where their bus is, how many stops away their bus is," said Jed Alpert, CEO of Mobile Commons. "They can do this from their home. They can do this from across the street. They can do this from a local business, so they don't have to spend their time waiting outside."

And finally for commuters with smart phones that have the ability to read Quick Response codes, there will be a small black and white square code posted on each bus stop that can be scanned and read by the phone to tell its owner how far away the next bus is.

For all the avenues available to tech-savvy riders to check on their bus' location, the benefit for older residents or those lacking the gadgets to access the online information would have been lost without Borough President Jim Molinaro stepping in.

"Twenty percent of our people on Staten Island are over the age of 60, and many of those people can't operate a smart phone or even have a smart phone," Molinaro said. "There's another system that I spoke to the MTA about, it's putting (electronic) boards in the bus shelters that would notify the people at the shelter to just where this bus is through the same system."

At a cost of $3,000 per shelter to add the signs, Molinaro gave the MTA $200,000 out of his office's budget to install the sign boards in 50 to 60 of the most heavily-used bus shelters on Staten Island, he said. The only hurdle mentioned was approaching the company that operates the bus shelters to gain permission to put the sign boards up, Molinaro said, but he did not envision that as being a problem.

MTA Board Member Allen Cappelli has experienced waiting for buses on Staten Island in the cold not knowing when one may arrive, so he praised this initiative as a way to bring "predictability" to the riders. "The predictability is what's important, and this will give people predictability," Cappelli said.

The program was tested on the B63 bus route in Brooklyn since February.

Other elected officials on hand included: state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), state Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn), Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island), Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-North Shore), City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) and City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore).

(Taken From NY Post 1/11/12 by JENNIFER FERMINO Transit Reporter)

The MTA is taking a hard line against its largest union in tense contract talks - demanding that workers give up an array of cushy perks, including generous vacation allowances and bloated overtime pay, The Post has learned.

The contract with the 35,000-member Transport Workers Union - which infamously went on strike during the 2005 Christmas season - ends Sunday, and until now neither side has detailed what's on the table.

In one key demand, the cash-strapped MTA wants TWU members to contribute 10 percent of the total cost of their health-care coverage, said a source briefed on the hush-hush talks. Currently, workers pay an average of 5.5 percent.

The MTA also wants workers to fork over a co-pay for emergency-room visits, said the source.

Agency chiefs also want TWU workers - who automatically get a paid day off on their birthdays - to agree to reduced vacation days for new hires. That means anyone hired under the new contract would get two weeks of vacation for the first four years on the job. Workers now get four weeks starting at three years.

The MTA is also looking to crack down on abuse of sick time. If any worker uses more than 50 percent of allotted sick time, he or she will be placed on a list. Those on the list are subject to visits from management on days they're out. Currently, only employees who have used almost all of their sick time get home visits.

The average MTA worker uses 13 paid or unpaid sick days a year, according to the agency. Union officials claim that number is so high because it is difficult to get time off for personal reasons.

Another austerity measure the MTA is pushing involves how union members accumulate overtime hours. The current collective-bargaining agreement gives workers overtime pay for any shift over eight hours.The MTA wants to change that so workers won't get overtime until they hit 40 hours in their workweek, a switch that would result in the agency having to bring fewer workers on for costlier holiday and weekend shifts.

The agency also wants the contractual right to hire part-time bus operators. The MTA says hiring part-timers would eliminate the need to pay extra full-timers on days with reduced ridership.

The Post reported exclusively last week that some full-timers were sitting around at full pay playing chess at their garages because their runs had been canceled due to service reductions during the Christmas holiday.

MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin said the agency would not comment on specific contract negotiations. "We won't negotiate in the press," he said.

However, MTA officials have publicly called on the TWU to accept three years of net zero wage increases.

TWU President John Samuelsen also said he wouldn't talk about any demands until the end of negotiations.

There's no apparent immediate threat of a walkout when the current contract expires Sunday. Both sides have agreed to keep talking if they don't reach an agreement by the deadline.

(Taken from NY Post 12/19/11 by Transit Reporter JENNIFER FERMINO)

Here's a nasty lump of coal for the MTA's largest union.

The transit agency's "significant financial problems" mean it's not obligated to fork over raises to its unionized employees, an arbitration panel found in a landmark ruling.

That decision, involving part of a dispute between the MTA and a 700-member segment of Transport Workers Union Local 252 on Long Island, goes against previous rulings.

The MTA will be able to use it as ammunition in its contract talks with its main union, the 35,000-member TWU Local 100, whose pact expires Jan. 15.

The last time there was a major contract dispute, during Christmas 2005, the transit workers struck and crippled the city.

In the Long Island case, the MTA successfully argued that the TWU must "shoulder some of the burden" that the riding public and the transit agency both have endured amid the bad economy.

Those burdens include higher fares and service cuts for riders and three years of no raises for MTA management, according to the ruling. "To survive, it [the MTA] must eliminate nearly $4 billion in expenses from a $12 billion operating budget by 2015," the panel noted in summing up the MTA's predicament.

"It can do so only by controlling labor costs, which comprise two-thirds of its budget."

The ruling covers only TWU Local 252, whose members work for the soon-to-be-defunct Long Island Bus and have been operating without a contract since 2009.

TWU Local 100 has repeatedly said it will not accept a contract that doesn't give its workers raises, even though several state employee unions have agreed to work without pay hikes.

The latest ruling changes nothing, said TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen.

"We're intent on a wage increase," he said.

Even though MTA bosses haven't had raises, he said his members deserve more cash because they typically make less. The bosses are "making $200,000 [a year]," he said. "Taking a zero [pay raise] is no big deal to them."