The
New York City Transit Authority (
NYCTA, and branded as
MTA New York City Transit) is a public authority in the
U.S. stateA U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
that operates public transportation in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Part of the
Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityThe Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S...
, the busiest and largest transit system in
North AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, the NYCTA has a daily ridership of 7 million trips (over 2 billion annually).
The NYCTA operates the following systems:
- New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
, a rapid transitA rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
system in ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, The BronxThe Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, and QueensQueens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
.
- Staten Island Railway
The Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority, publicly known as MTA Staten Island Railway or SIR, is the operator of the lone rapid transit line in the borough of Staten Island, New York City, USA...
, a rapid transit line in Staten Island (operated by the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority, a NYCTA subsidiary)
- NYCT Department of Buses
New York City Transit buses, marked on the buses MTA New York City Bus, is a bus service that operates in all five boroughs of New York City, employing over 4300 buses on 219 routes within the five boroughs of New York City in the United States...
, a busA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
network serving all five boroughs, now operated under MTA Regional Bus OperationsMTA Regional Bus Operations is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations operated by the MTA.-History:...
with NYC Transit personnel.
Name
As part of establishing a common corporate identity, the
Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityThe Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the U.S...
in 1994 assigned popular names to each of its subsidiaries and affiliates. The New York City Transit Authority is now known popularly as
MTA New York City Transit (NYCT), (or more specifically on the vehicles,
MTA New York City BusNew York City Transit buses, marked on the buses MTA New York City Bus, is a bus service that operates in all five boroughs of New York City, employing over 4300 buses on 219 routes within the five boroughs of New York City in the United States...
and
MTA New York City SubwayThe New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
), though the former remains its legal name for documents and contracts. Newer contracts and RFPs, however, have also used the popular name.
The Authority is also sometimes referred to as
NYCT (for
New York City Transit), or simply the
TA (for
Transit Authority).
Management structure
The Chairman and Members of the MTA, by statute, also serve as the Chairman and Members of the Transit Authority, and serve as the Directors of the
Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating AuthorityThe Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority is a subsidiary of the New York City Transit Authority that was created in 1962 to take over bus services from the bankrupt Fifth Avenue Coach Company and Surface Transit, Inc...
. The Executive Director of the MTA is, ex officio, Executive Director of the Transit Authority.
The Transit Authority has its own management structure which is responsible for its day-to-day operations, with executive personnel reporting to the President of NYCTA. The current NYCTA president is Thomas Prendergast.
History
The subway system today is composed of what once were three separate systems in competition with one another. Two of them were built and operated by private companies:
August BelmontAugust Belmont, Jr. was an American financier, the builder of New York's Belmont Park racetrack, and a major owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses.-Early life:...
's
Interborough Rapid Transit CompanyThe Interborough Rapid Transit Company was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT was purchased by the City in June 1940...
(IRT) and the
Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit CorporationThe Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation was an urban transit holding company, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940 and today, together with the IND subway system, form the B Division of the New York City Subway...
(BMT). The third, the public
Independent Subway SystemThe Independent Subway System , formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad, was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway...
(IND) was owned and operated by the City of New York. The IRT and BMT systems were acquired by the city on June 1, 1940 after they went bankrupt and consolidated with the IND into the
New York City Board of Transportation (NYCBOT).
The
New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), a
public benefit corporationA public-benefit corporation is a public corporation chartered by a state designed to perform some public benefit.A public authority is a type of public-benefit corporation that takes on a more bureaucratic role, such as the maintenance of public infrastructure, that often has broad powers to...
, was created in 1953 pursuant to Title 9 of Article 5 of the Public Authorities Law, as amended (the "TA Act"), for the purposes of acquiring the transit facilities then operated by the City and operating them "for the convenience and safety of the public." These facilities included the surface lines (buses and, until 1956, streetcars) and the
IRTThe Interborough Rapid Transit Company was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT was purchased by the City in June 1940...
,
BMTThe Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation was an urban transit holding company, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940 and today, together with the IND subway system, form the B Division of the New York City Subway...
, and
INDThe Independent Subway System , formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad, was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway...
subways; before that date these services were managed by New York City's Board of Transportation. A major impetus of the formation of the NYCTA was to remove transit policy, and especially the setting of the transit fare, from City politics. Today, all of the subways are owned by New York City and leased to the Transit Authority for operation.
As with all public transportation in the U.S., the TA requires assistance for its capital costs and to cover operational needs, however, the very high ridership of New York City's subway system has enabled it to pay 67% of its operating costs from fares and advertising. Historically, the TA's capital requirements were met by the city and state jointly, but this support was withdrawn, primarily by Governor Rockefeller, in the 1960s.
In 1968 the NYCTA, and its subsidiary, the
Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating AuthorityThe Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority is a subsidiary of the New York City Transit Authority that was created in 1962 to take over bus services from the bankrupt Fifth Avenue Coach Company and Surface Transit, Inc...
(MaBSTOA), were placed under the control of, and are now affiliates of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public benefit corporation chartered by the New York State Legislature in 1965.
Trip Planner
In December 2006, MTA New York City Transit launched Trip Planner, its online travel itinerary service. Trip Planner offers users customized subway, bus, and walking directions within all five boroughs of New York City, as well as service alerts and service advisories for planned track work. The service was developed and is maintained by NYC Transit with the assistance of Technology and Information Services and its outside vendor Trapeze. It is accessed through the official website of the MTA.
Similar to MapQuest, which offers driving directions, Trip Planner provides search fields for starting address and destination address, and allows end users to navigate the complexity of the subway and bus system by narrowing their options to subway, local bus or express bus only, minimizing the number of transfers or time, and adjusting the walking distance to and from the transit stop.
In October 2007 NYCT unveiled an addition to the Trip Planner site when it launched Trip Planner On the Go! This service allows users with mobile access to the web to obtain travel itineraries while away from a desk or laptop computer. Trip Planner On the Go! was made applicable for cellular phone, PDA, or Blackberry users, and offered the same three-option travel directions along with real-time service alerts. The back end programming for On the Go! was “developed using XHTML technology and the latest Microsoft Dot Net Framework in a clustered environment.” By the end of October 2007, NYCT boasted more than 5,000 daily customers using Trip Planner.
In February 2008 NYCT announced an upgrade to the mapping system using NAVTEQ and Microsoft Virtual Earth software similar to mapping sites such as Google Maps and MapQuest. The new software offered more accurate street grids, included business and points of interest, and allowed users to view the maps in aerial, and 3-D points of view. To date, the aerial and 3-D views are not available on Trip Planner’s mobile service.
In June 2008 NYCT announced it had reached 10,000 daily visitors to Trip Planner. Since the announcement, the number of visits to the service eclipsed the number of telephone calls to the agency’s travel information hotline. The following month, TIS launched Trip Planner as a widget application, allowing users to download the service and add it to their personalized homepage, blog, or website.
The Trip Planner has since largely replaced the NYCTA call center on NYC Transit's phone number.
Strikes
Employees of the New York City Transit Authority assigned to the New York City Subway and in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx are members of the
Transport Workers Union of AmericaTransport Workers Union of America is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article discusses the parent union and its largest local, Local 100,...
Local 100, with Queens and Staten Island bus personnel represented by various
Amalgamated Transit UnionThe Amalgamated Transit Union is a labor union in the United States and The Amalgamated Transit Union Canadian Council in Canada, representing workers in the transit system and other industries...
locals.
On
New Year's DayNew Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
, in 1966, a 12-day strike was started with the aid of
Michael J. "Mike" QuillMichael J. Quill was one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union of America , a union founded by subway workers in New York City that expanded to represent employees in other forms of transit, and the President of the TWU for most of the first thirty years of its existence...
. This strike started after the union member's contracts had expired, and with large economic demands from the union. After the
1966 New York City transit strikeThe 1966 New York City transit strike was a strike in New York City called by the Transport Workers Union and Amalgamated Transit Union after the expiration of their contract with the New York City Transit Authority . It was the first strike against the TA; pre-TWU transit strikes in 1905, 1910,...
, the
Taylor LawThe Public Employees Fair Employment Act refers to Article 14 of the New York State Civil Service Law, which defines the rights and limitations of unions for public employees in New York....
was passed making public employee strikes illegal in the state of New York.
Despite the Taylor Law, there was still an 11-day
strike in 1980The 1980 New York City transit strike in New York City was the first work stoppage at the New York City Transit Authority since 1966. 34,000 members of Transport Workers Union Local 100 walked off their jobs on April 1, 1980, in a strike with the goal of increasing the wage for contracted workers...
. 34,000 union members struck in order to call for increased wages.
On December 20, 2005,
another strike occurredThe 2005 New York City transit strike was a strike in New York City called by the Transport Workers Union Local 100 . Negotiations for a new contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority broke down over retirement, pension, and wage increases. The strike began at 3:00 a.m. EST on...
. Workers walked off at 3 a.m. and the NYCTA stopped operating. Later that day, State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones warned the transit union that there would be a fine of $1 million for each day the TA is shut down. Also for each day the workers missed during the strike they would be fined two days pay. Ultimately, the Judge fined the union $2.5 million, charged employees two days' wages for every day they were out on strike, and imposed individual fines on the union’s officers. Most significantly, the courts indefinitely suspended the Union’s dues checkoff and refused to restore it for nearly 18 months.
At 2:35 p.m. on December 22, TWU Local 100 had told members to report to work immediately
http://www.twulocal100.org/, after reaching a tentative agreement with management on the terms of a contract. By late afternoon, the strike was over and bus service resumed in the evening and subway service in the morning of the December 23. The TWU membership rejected the proposed contract by 7 votes. After a second vote by the union, the contract was approved by the union membership, but the MTA Board of Directors, sitting as the Transit Authority board, then repudiated the contract proposal they had agreed to earlier. The original contract agreed to by Local 100 and the Transit Authority as a result of the strike was ultimately imposed on both parties by an arbitrator.
More than four months after the strike ended, the courts imposed a brief jail term on Local 100 President Toussaint for his role in the strike.
In 2008–2009, MTA management once again refused to sign off on an agreement with Local 100 for a successor to the collective bargaining agreement, which expired early in 2009. This time, the Union chose to pursue the arbitration process provided by the Taylor Law rather than strike in support of its demands. On August 11, 2009, after months of hearings and dozens of witnesses, the state arbitration panel issued its award. However, the MTA refused to comply with the award, forcing the Union to go to court to seek to enforce it. On December 11, 2009, State Supreme Court Justice Peter Sherwood issued a decision upholding the arbitration award in all respects. The MTA has not indicated whether it will appeal this decision.
External links