Spotlight Vol. 7, No. 21: Don't Cut MTA's Budget; Raise It.

It may sound crazy to say at a time of ballooning budget deficits, but rather than cutting subway and commuter rail service, the region's governors and mayors should instead find the resources to actually increase the quality, speed and frequency of transit -- because that's the type of investment that will quickly boomerang right back to us and help us get back on the road to prosperity. 

The MTA alone has invested $70 billion into its subway, bus and commuter rail system since 1982. Unreliable, un-air-conditioned, graffitied trains and buses have been replaced with well-lit, clean, comfortable vehicles and much more dependable service. Grand Central was restored to its original glory and its status as the most famous rail terminal in the world. NJ TRANSIT, the Port Authority and suburban bus systems have made similarly significant investments in their vehicles, stations and service. 

Thanks to all of these capital investments, our quality of life has improved dramatically. Sure, there's still a lot of ancient equipment around and many stations and lines need to be overhauled. But there's no denying it's become easier, faster and decidedly more comfortable to get around. And as life in New York has become better, more people have moved here. Dozens of neighborhoods have been revived - in Manhattan, the boroughs, other cities and the suburbs. Neighborhoods nationally known for their crime rates and poverty just thirty years ago - the Lower East Side, Bed-Stuy, Hoboken - have become desirable places to live, and have seen a lot of new development. Commercial centers have thrived too - again, both in the Manhattan's Central Business District and in smaller centers throughout the region like Stamford, Newark, White Plains. Investing in transit has economic repercussions, and they are welcome ones. 

The revival of New York City and the region obviously had many sources: a growing overall economy, reduced crime rates, immigration, and so on, but improvements in the transit system are undeniably a major factor, if not the largest one. Can you imagine a thriving City with graffitied subway cars getting stuck because of track fires? Didn't think so. The transit system is now a net asset for the region, not a liability like it used to be. Families actually like the idea of moving here and giving up one, two or all their cars. 

Now imagine what New York could look like if dozens of billions of dollars more were invested in our transit system - if it took half as much time to get to Manhattan from the Bronx and the farthest parts of Brooklyn and Queens; if the commercial centers of New Jersey, Westchester, Southern Connecticut and Long Island were connected to each other with fast through-service on the commuter railroads; if AirTrain took passengers directly from Penn Station to JFK, or from Lower Manhattan to Newark Airport. Our quality of life would go up, and even more neighborhoods and commercial centers would turn around, as hundreds of thousands of new residents and jobs came to the region. 

Sure, it will take money to do all this. But the money is there, from a variety of sources, even in these economic hard times. What we need is the collective will power. If we want to compete on the national and international stage, if we want to continue to attract residents and jobs, we've got to keep on building our transit system, not abandon it. Subways, trains, buses and ferries are some of the best investments we can make right now; I'd bank on it.