A Cautionary Tale

The one thing that just can’t happen when you self-righteously call for a study is that it refutes everything you were trying to prove:

For generations of Staten Islanders, it has been conventional wisdom that borough residents don’t get their fair share of public transit for all the money they pay in fares and tolls.

Researchers in the city Independent Budget Office may have turned that assumption on its head, finding in a recent study that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority subsidizes Island commuters at a rate higher than passengers anywhere else in the city.

Whether by local or express bus or by train, the analysis, requested by two local lawmakers, determined that when Islanders swipe their MetroCards, their fares cover a substantially smaller portion of the real cost of their rides.

Transit observers played down the report and the borough’s $110 plus million annual subsidy, saying that the level of per-person subsidies belie a struggling transit system in need of even greater resources.

Still, they acknowledge that the report did not turn up fresh evidence that more MTA funding is warranted here.

“It doesn’t give us the ammunition we were seeking to make the case,” said Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid Island/Brooklyn) who called for the study with Assemblyman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore).