CSI in the News October 2011 - CSI Today

The seven bridges and two tunnels the MTA is responsible for generate approximately $1.4 billion annuallyfrom tolls, and more than half of that money goes to support public transportation, such as buses, subwaysand railways, according to the MTA's website.Toll revenue at the Verrazano in 2010 reached $313 million, or 22 percent of the $1.4 billion raised by all ofthe MTA's crossings.Cappelli said placing a toll on all of the city's river crossings, such as the four East River crossings and theeight Harlem River crossings, which are currently free, would spread around the cost of subsidizing busesand subways giving Staten Islanders a fair shake."If you're making everybody pay a fair fare, so to speak, you can raise, I believe, more money and be ableto charge people less," Cappelli said.The problem with running such a massive, regional transportation system is that some of the routes areprofitable but some are not, and combining those costs system-wide requires revenue from other sources."Public transportation is always a money-losing proposition and buses are even more so," Cappelli said. "If Icould just cherry pick the routes that I would want to run and not have to run service everywhere, then youcould, in fact, make money on it."He also mentioned large undertakings such as running a subway line down second avenue, which hedescribed as an "important project," but it's huge price tag diverts funding from other areas of the system."Part of the problem is that these mega projects that we have suck up every dollar in the region," Cappellisaid.The MTA has borrowed vast sums of money through the years to fund some of these projects, which hasresulted in a nearly $2 billion annual bill to service that past debt, and the cost of maintenance for the 100-plus year old subway system further exasperates the budget, he said.Running a bus through the College of Staten Island campus is an example of a much smaller transportationneed in the region that is not being funded because of a lack of money.The MTA has an "internal rule" that states the agency cannot add costs to bus services, and extending theexisting bus route that stops at the college, through the campus would cause enough time loss thatadditional buses would have to be added to the route to make up the difference, Cappelli said."If you're adding on time and you try to maintain a schedule then you end up having to put another bus on,"Cappelli said. "That becomes the argument."Page 118 of 154