LONG ISLAND, N.Y. — The MTA is switching tracks, but commuters may not notice any big differences on their way to work, New York’s Newsday reported.
Under changes unveiled yesterday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North will be merged and public bus lines will be consolidated — laying the groundwork for Queens private bus lines now subsidized by the city to be absorbed by the MTA.
The new-look MTA will have five divisions: railroad, subway, bus, bridge-and-tunnel and a new capital company to oversee all major expansion projects, including the proposed extension of the No. 7 subway line and construction of a Second Avenue subway.
“We will design the system so that we will in the future be able to absorb the Queens lines,” MTA chairman Peter Kalikow said.
The reorganization is designed to save hundreds of millions of dollars over the next five or six years without harming service.
“We hope that we can make one and one equal three,” said Kalikow.
Riders will notice only cosmetic changes. For instance, Long Island Rail Road may cease to exist as a brand name. Most rank-and-file transit workers will be unaffected, as existing collective bargaining agreements will remain in place. Kalikow did not know how many management-level jobs would be affected.
“We would hope that we can do this on a very painless basis,” he said. “And we think we can.”
The new arrangements will impose a natural, streamlined flow on a vast state agency that has evolved herky-jerky, said officials.
For example, New York City Transit, the largest division of MTA, has been responsible for subway and bus service. Buses have had two separate divisions: one for Manhattan and the Bronx and the other for Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens. MTA also oversees Long Island Bus in Nassau County, a separate entity.
Adding to the confusion are seven city-subsidized private lines, four of which operate primarily in Queens. When workers at three private Queens lines staged a seven-week strike last summer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested shifting control of the lines to the MTA to unburden the city of more than $110 million in annual subsidies.
Yesterday, however, Kalikow said MTA would not assume control of the private lines if that also meant assuming those city subsidies.
“We will not take on any more losses at all,” he said.
The MTA plans to submit the plan to the state legislature by the end of this year, with a goal of implementing it fully by Jan. 1, 2004.