Mar 4, 2008 5:48 am US/Eastern
MTA Unveils Grand Plan For NYC's Transit Future
Video Replaces E-Z Pass; MetroCards For East Coast
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Forty years from now E-Z Pass could be obsolete, cameras could collect tolls and there could be many more bus and subway lines in the outer boroughs. That's the vision for the future unveiled Monday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's executive director.
There was some grumbling.
"I'm unhappy about the fare hike," Richard Short said. "To me, it's a tax on working people -- taxation almost without representation."
But many seemed to take Monday's MTA fare hike in stride.
"It's the cost of doing business in New York City," said Mark Herskovitz of Brooklyn.
Added Sabah Muhammad of Harlem: "I'm still using my old monthly, so I didn't have to buy anything Monday. I didn't know."
And as fares went up, the executive director of the MTA was laying out his vision for what the transit system of the future should look like.
"This region's economic vitality, livability and beauty are inextricably linked to the fortunes of the MTA," MTA head Elliot Sander said.
On Sander's list:
* Video toll collection at Bridges and tunnels
* Expanded subway stations so trains can be longer
* Lots of new subway lines
* Short Long Island Railroad trains in Long Island to provide suburb-to-suburb service.
"If we want to keep the Goldman Sachs, the Merrill Lynches, the AIGs in New York over the next five, 10, 20 years, that's how we need to think," Sander said.
Gene Russianoff of the Straphanger's Campaign trumpeted Sander's vision.
"Any ambitions for the future of the subway, bus and commuter rails system are expensive, difficult to achieve and, so, they can be dismissed by critics, but look at the past 100 years, that kind of building has made New York the city that it is," Russianoff said.
Transit officials say that within five to 10 years you'll be able to use to same MetroCard to ride on transit systems from Maine to North Carolina.
The MTA is also trying to identify routes for running Metro North service to New Jersey and Long Island.
Starting next summer a pilot program will run Metro North trains from the New Haven line to Giants Stadium on football weekends.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
2009 Celebrity Deaths, July-Dec.
Click to enlarge
Hebrew Bible Stolen By Nazis Being Sent To Vienna 27 mins ago 
NJ Fugitive Surrender Program Draws Over 4,000 30 mins ago 
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments