Now That Was Easy

No, it really wasn’t worth noting because apparently it was never going to happen in the first place:

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow pulled the emergency brake yesterday on proposals to raise bus and subway fares and cut back on service next year.

Predicting deficits upward of $1 billion starting in 2008, the agency said in July that a 5 percent fare hike would likely have to kick in next September, along with reductions in the number of subway trains and buses that run during midday, nights and weekends.

But yesterday, amid complaints from transit advocates and union leaders, Kalikow switched tracks.

Noting that ridership had soared to levels not seen in decades, he said straphangers deserved a little slack — and there will be no fare hikes or service cuts through 2007.

. . .

The announcement infuriated some transit officials, who contend the proposed cuts were included in the preliminary budget over their objections — and now Kalikow is making himself out to be the hero, sources said.

Though MTA sources say the cuts never really had a chance of remaining in the final November budget, transit advocates fumed that the agency would even think of hurting riders to save $20 million annually — a measly sum compared to the agency’s $10 billion budget.

And this the kind of win-win-win scenario that allows everybody to grandstand:

Balking at the proposed cuts, which could also cost hundreds of transit jobs, Transport Workers Union boss Roger Toussaint said the MTA should “cut suits instead of service.”

And that looming deficit? Take it out of LIRR’s budget!