An Example of how Politics and Operations Don't Mix

Today marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.  It was a big event that all of us who were on or near Long Island at the time still remember. The LIRR's infrastructure suffered a substantial hit during the storm, and the recovery back to full service was slow-going.  I remember it was quite a while until train service was restored to my home station, Montauk.  But while damage to the LIRR was bad, it took a distant second place to the toll the hurricane took on New York City's subway system.

In particular, the (A) train's route in the Rockaways and the (R) train's Montague Street Tunnels were particularly bad hit, the latter so much so that the tunnels had to be closed for fourteen months (and we are still just shy of a year away from their reopening). 

But to make up for this, Governor Cuomo announced  last Friday that all fairs for (A) riders in the Rockaways and (R) train riders would be waived today, the one-year anniversary of the storm.

This is a prime example of how politics and actual operations don't mix.  It seems like Cuomo, always desiring to look good in front of the cameras, went ahead and made this announcement without really consulting with the MTA first.

When the news first broke it sounded like fares were going to be free for just the southern tail of the (R)'s Brooklyn routing, not the entire line.  But later on, it became known that fares would be waived for all (R) stations.  Yup, all of them.  It's worth noting that at the 44 stations the (R) serves, all but 12 have transfers to some other line.

So at the busy and bustling Times Square hub (a station that serves the (R) along with seven other lines) which sees darn near 200,000 people per day, how do they propose separating the (R) train riders (who would be entitled to the free rides) from everybody else?

According to this New York Times article the Governor of the State of New York [ridiculously] believes that people will behave on their honor and not take advantage of the poorly set up system.  So in a perfect world, the Emergency gate will be propped open at Times Square with a neat little sign saying "Free for (R) Riders!" and you would have (R) riders, and only (R) riders going through the gate.  Meanwhile all the other people going someplace else in the Subway system will dutifully swipe their MetroCards in the turnstiles and pay their $2.50 like any normal day.

Hahahahaha.  Good luck with that one.  I know if I were presented with a choice to either slip through an open gate with a sign saying "Free Rides!" or paying my fare at a turnstile I'd be skipping right through that gate.  And I bet about 98% of other people would do the same (only silly tourists who don't know what they're doing would be silly enough to fall for that--come on, this is New York!)

And some of the solutions they thought up were just as laughable.  Like the idea of stationing security personnel at entrances asking people what train they were going for.  I bet the MTA would be absolutely *shocked* to see how many people "really" ride the (R) train.

"Which line are you going to?"
"Uhhh, the free one...."
"Ok then, right this way."

Now if I did my addition correctly, the MTA stands to give away upwards of 1.187 million free rides tomorrow (and at the average fare of $1.76 that's a handy sum of $2.089 million in lost revenue) to riders at (R) stations across the city.  And that doesn't count the people who would be perfectly willing to hike the extra avenue over to Broadway for the free fare.

Yikes!

This is an excellent example of how the politicians shooting from the hip without actually taking a close look at the feasibility of what they're saying first can come back to bite the MTA in the but.  If Cuomo talked this over more with the people in the know they possibly could have nailed down more finite.  This post on Second Avenue Sagas goes into the flaws behind this further but in the end, it's just another case of politicians playing politics and the MTA paying the price.