The MTA voted last Wednesday to impose massive service cuts and huge fare hikes on transit riders throughout the Bronx and the rest of the New York City metro area. But state legislators, who failed to come up with a rescue plan by the MTA’s self-imposed timeline, say there is still time to stave off the drastic changes.

The fare hikes, which, if implemented, will raise the fee for a bus or subway ride from $2 to $2.50 (and the price of a 30-day pass, from $81 to $103) would take effect May 31.

The service cuts, which will affect more than a dozen vital lines connecting Bronx neighborhoods, will be staggered throughout the next few months unless the state steps in. The cuts include the complete elimination of weekday service for the Bx14, Bx18, Bx20, Bx30, Bx34 and Bx4. Overnight service for the Bx 10 will also be eliminated.

Subway service will also be reduced throughout the borough and thousands of transit workers stand to lose their jobs.
After announcing the proposed cuts in November, the MTA said the only way to avoid them would be if the state stepped in with significant revenue-generating legislation.

Governor David Paterson and the state Assembly leadership proposed a plan that would bridge the MTA’s budget gap through an 8 percent fare hike, a series of tolls on bridges across the East and Harlem rivers and a payroll tax.

But the Senate refused to support the bridge tolls, instead offering only a 4 percent fare hike and a smaller payroll tax as a stop-gap measure. The governor and MTA said it simply wouldn’t be enough and rejected the plan.

Bronx Assemblyman Jose Rivera said there was absolutely no way lawmakers in Albany would impose the bridge tolls the MTA was asking for. “I would lie down in front of traffic on the [University Heights Bridge] before that happened.”

Other Bronx lawmakers, including Assemblyman and borough president candidate Ruben Diaz, Jr., echoed Rivera’s rigid stance.

He said he wanted the MTA to open up their books and reveal their next five-year capital plan before conceding on bridge tolls.

Even though mass transit riders outnumber drivers in the Bronx, Diaz said, “Sometimes, the minority needs to be protected.”

State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. blamed everyone except the state’s Democrats. “The MTA took on too much debt, too much risk and is now trying to saddle the victims, in this case the ridership with bailing out years of bad decision making not only by the MTA but a three-term governor [Pataki] and [Republican] members of the Senate no longer in the majority,”

Espada also said all was not lost. “I believe there is ample time for Albany to step in and prevent these massive fare hikes and service cuts.”

Diaz agreed, saying state Democrats would come up with some kind of compromise. “Anything can happen in Albany,” he said.