More NYC Token Booths Will Likely Close -- Here's a Possible Solution.

The MTA will be back in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday to try to lay off 487 token booth clerks and close their booths.

The booths involved include the Cadman Plaza West booth on the A and C lines at High Street, and the booth at Willoughby and Jay streets on the A, C and F lines at Jay Street-Borough Hall.

See the Brooklyn Eagle for the list of all the Brooklyn closures.

The MTA says every station will have one booth open somewhere. The problem is, sometimes that booth is far away, at the end of a station that goes on and on. (In the case of the High Street stop, for example, the only manned booth will be at the entrance that opens up onto a somewhat desolate part of Adams Street, an entrance many people won't go near at night.)

Now Here's a Possible Solution

We would be all for these service cutbacks if the MTA would only add one requirement: that every single MTA employee, from the chairman on down, ride the subway or bus every time they had to get somewhere in New York City.

Can you imagine if, say, 15 MTA executives all had to get to a meeting by 8:30 a.m. -- and they all had to take the subway?

Somehow, magically, service would improve, stations would become safer and cleaner, and there would be fewer cutbacks. Money would be found for service restorations.

And why not? To say that the business of the city cannot possibly be conducted while relying on the city's mass transport system is to say that the system does not work. And MTA assures us that the system does work, and will continue to work even after all of these employees are fired.

So let them ride.

Photo of Tom Otterness sculpture at 14th Street by Annie Mole, Creative Commons license

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anniemole/ / CC BY 2.0

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