BeehiveHairdresser.com

Despite being around for decades and in the face of wanting to give a steep rise in fare cost for commuters, the MTA still doesn’t know what neighborhoods that it provides service to, or at the very least is extremely unsure what neighborhoods and communities that it provides transportation service to.

The Bay Ridge/Fort Hamilton conundrum…

The R subway line.

If you get on a downtown R train you will see that the train is going to 95th Street (at 4th Avenue) / Bay Ridge.

Conductors also announce that it is an “R to 95th Street, Bay Ridge”.

The only problem with all this is that 95th Street and 4th Avenue isn’t in Bay Ridge…

4th Avenue and 95th Street is directly in the middle of a neighborhood whose name is often unnecessarily not recognized, Fort Hamilton - Bay Ridge ends at 86th Street.

Someone at the MTA knows this, or at least someone at the MTA knew this, because as long as the R train has gone to 95th Street it hasn’t always been said to end the line in Bay Ridge - sometimes the MTA referred to the location as Bay Ridge, and other times it referred to it as Fort Hamilton.

As such, the MTA currently states on the R line schedule that the R goes to 95 St, Brooklyn.

Aside from that, the current subway map also says that the R goes to Bay Ridge, 95th Street - not Fort Hamilton.

And yet their neighborhood map clearly states that you are inside the neighborhood of Fort Hamilton.

That’s quite the pickle that the MTA currently has for themselves:

One Subway line, one exact and specific location, yet two different neighborhoods!

At least three older versions of the NYC Subway map state that the R line ends Brooklyn service in Fort Hamilton:

For those not familiar with Brooklyn, don’t get too excited by seeing “Dyker Beach Park” and think that you’re going to a hidden NYC beach - it’s not actually a beach, it’s a public golf course.

Back to the point, on at least two other previous NYC Subway maps, the MTA doesn’t clearly designate which neighborhood is which, which was probably due to the MTA not being sure of what neighborhoods they operated in.

This location problem isn’t only within the NYC Subway system, it is also found within the bus service over at the MTA.

This bus map clearly shows that the B37 and B63 end in Fort Hamilton.

Even the B37 and B63 schedules reflect the fact that they end their routes in the neighborhood of Fort Hamilton, yet the LCD signs on both bus lines state that they go to Bay Ridge.

Sure, those bus lines go to Bay Ridge, but they also go further, which is what should be on the LCD screens - LIRR & Metro-North train lines reflect the last stop as being where the trains are going, not one in the middle.

Anyway, I bring all of this up because the MTA is publicly telling the world that they need to raise more money in order to fill in their budget gap - either by way of putting tolls on the East River crossings, or by raising fairs by 30% AND cutting services, or by magical funding from Congress.

In light of all this, I believe that the fact of the MTA not even being sure which neighborhood is which that it provides service to, is a clear predication that it more than likely doesn’t even know what it is spending their budget on.

It’s time for someone, maybe even two or three people, but AT LEAST SOMEONE out of the 23 MTA Board Members to open up the books of the MTA - just sit down, go line by line and finally figure out what the heck they are spending their money on, and then go deeper and classify it is being legit, overpriced, paying twice for the same work, etc.

Just figure out what goes on with the current money and realize where you can get millions of dollars in savings!!!