Yesterday the MTA announced it will delay the renovation of 19 subway stations around the city, the bulk of which are in Brooklyn. (Runner-up: The Bronx.) The biggest rehab that’s biting the dust, at least for now, is the overhaul of the Smith-9th station. Renovations of a number of stations on the D/M line are also being put on hold. To me, a cut is a cut is a cut, said Gene Russianoff, the staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, a transit advocacy group. Their spin is that they’re deferrals, but they’re deferred into no man’s land. MTA chief executive Elliot G. Sander said the postponements are coming because the authority doesn’t know how it’s going to afford the service improvements it’s already started, and that the MTA is facing a budget shortfall due, in large part, to a falloff in tax revenue from real estate transactions.
M.T.A. Cuts Delay Some Big Projects Until 2010 [NY Times]
Graphic from The New York Times.