A Rare Compliment to the MTA

As many of you well know, I loathe the MTA.  For many years, I have commuted on the Long Island Railroad and New York City Transit subways and buses.  Since starting my commutes to Manhattan, I have had to endure countless delays, cancelled trains, service cuts, and fare hikes.  For a while, I tried to defend the system.  I have an infatuation with transit systems.  I find them fascinating and New York's is one of the biggest and oldest in the world.  It takes a lot of resources to move the people of this city around in a halfway efficient manner, but the constant service cuts and hikes have made even me a hater.  


Today, however, I am putting the hate on hold and applauding the MTA.  For the first time in a long time, New York City transit finally did something right.  My current commute, on a day when I have school and work, looks something like this:  Around 9am, I take the N/R train from 8th St/NYU to Times Square and transfer to the 1 train uptown to 116th St/Columbia University.  Then, after class, I take the 1 train back downtown to 79th St and transfer to the crosstown bus, M79.  I take the bus from Broadway over to 2nd Ave where my office is.  After work, I hop on the M15 2nd Avenue bus downtown to St Marks Place and walk home.  Its an annoying commute, but I've gotten used to it and don't mind it anymore.  


The M15 is usually the worst part of the commute.  Its a crowded bus line and even the Limited bus takes forever to get down to the Village.  But those crappy qualities made it the perfect bus line for the MTA to test out a little slice of Europe on New York straphangers.  Over in Europe, you buy a ticket for the bus or metro, validate the ticket (stamp it at a machine for time and date), and board the mode of transit.  This proof of purchase method is extremely efficient.  And for the first time, it's now in New York!

My ride home tonight was a pleasant experience...  A type of experience that is not often associated with the MTA.  After work, I waited at the 79th St stop for the M15.  After a couple of minutes, a brand new bus, wrapped in blue signage, with two blinking blue lights pulled up.  I boarded the M15 Select Bus Service, the new proof of payment bus line.  While people were initially confused about how the system works, in the end, I saw a definite improvement.  While stopping at 42nd street, a very popular stop, about 25 people juggled positions on and off the bus.  Under a normal ride, this stop would take about 10 minutes, but alas...  2 minutes!  The same thing at 57th and 34th streets!  This was amazing.  My bus ride, which used to take about 40 minutes took about 25 minutes.


So, MTA...  I still hate you, but I can admit a job well done on this new venture.  Now please apply it to the M101 Limited and the M79 crosstown!