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One reason it's bad that MTA is only paying interest is that the transportation world is changing. Autonomy, Uber/Lyft, and other technologies may mean that sub
by barney54 9y ago
One reason it's bad that MTA is only paying interest is that the transportation world is changing. Autonomy, Uber/Lyft, and other technologies may mean that subways systems like the MTA is in a death spiral where fewer riders means less fare revenue and less ability to even meet interest payments. In places like Washington, DC it looks like the death spiral is well underway.
- umanwizard 9y agoI guarantee no amount of self-driving cars, Uber, or any other car-related technology will make people stop taking the subway in New York. The car bridges and tunnels into and out of Manhattan are at full capacity all day long. It is vastly faster to take the subway in most normal cases.
- candiodari 9y agoI've often wondered though why companies like the MTA don't transform their networks into things like Elon Musk's boring company type network
- isostatic 9y agoBecause the passengers per hour is far lower under musk's scheme.
- StudentStuff 9y agoWe're talking 25k to 45k passengers an hour on a train versus ~1000 people per hour with Elon Musk's Boring company. It isn't even vaguely competitive.
- specialp 9y agoThere is absolutely no way any of this will replace the subway ever. All you need to do to see this is come to NYC when transit is on strike. The city is immobilized. There is nowhere in the USA that even approaches the density and mass transit usage as NY metro area. 8.8 million people plus the literal millions that commute to the city cannot possibly get around via surface transit alone.