Last month’s blizzard cost the MTA $30 million between lost revenue from fewer riders and worker overtime costs, top brass revealed yesterday.
The revenue hit from lost fares and fees involving the city’s subways, buses, commuter railroads and the MTA’s nine bridges and tunnels totaled $16 million.
Another $14 million was spent on authorized overtime for rank-and-file workers, who scrambled as the snow was falling to get subways up and running and free buses from chronically unplowed streets.
By comparison, the agency lost nearly the same total amount in rider revenue for all of last winter — and spent much less in overtime.
For a Feb. 9-10, 2010, storm and a Feb. 25, 2010, blizzard combined, the agency lost $17 million in fare payments, while doling out a total $8.3 million for overtime.
And the Feb. 25 storm was actually worse than the one the recent blizzard: 20.9 inches of snow fell on the city Feb. 25, while 19.8 inches fell Dec. 26 into the 27th, according to weather records.
The cost was likely higher for the December storm because the MTA waited too long to put its emergency winter plan into effect, which led to crippling delays both on the rails and on the street, two agency board members told The Post.
(Source: NY Post)
One Response
And what is the point? How about reporting because of the Bloomberg Blizzard all those that lost a couple of days pay because they couldn’t get to work….