Gene Russianoff Quotations

The only pledge I'd believe is, if either one or both of them said, 'I'm going to be mayor in 2007 and, if the MTA has a deficit, I'll fill it with city money,'

Most people feel that there's an angry and indifferent god that runs the subway and it's sort of lashing out at you.

I can't fault them for picking a defense contractor, given all the public pressure to make the subways more secure.

He clearly still harbors a very personal grudge from the December negotiations. And that doesn't augur well for the near future.

Pataki's got to make up his mind. If he keeps asking the feds for billions for both . . . New York will wind up with nothing.

Traditionally, all the mayors that have been around during the time I've been around - Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani and Bloomberg - their hearts are not in the subways. The state runs them.

We thought it was a good first step to wire the stations. There is a big difference between the stations and trains.

Twenty-five years ago, your trains broke down all the time, they were covered in graffiti and you had no incentive to use transit. Billions of dollars later, your trains are reliable and you get discounts the more you use the system. The lesson of all this is, if you invest in transit, the riders will come.

There have been criticisms that this fare discount program would only help tourists. We respectfully disagree and think that the bulk of the savings went to regular customers.

Ferrer can't even get heard competing against this grotesque spending.

The words 'defense contractor' kind of worries me.

Arbitration - in which the rank and file will have no vote - is a recipe for potential unrest for years to come.

A rash of broken machines is not expected. The board is doing a better job of training poll watchers and they're maintaining the machines better.

This is a necessary consequence of maintaining the system.

It's just troubling that they would try to push it forward when there are technical concerns, community concerns and their own consultant is questioning the wisdom of it.

It was shocking, in some ways, that somebody who couldn't do business with the city could do data business with the MTA,

It was staggering that he's already spent $47 million to get elected.

It's about time that riders here enjoyed the same timely arrival and delay information that systems around the world have had for years.

For many people they don't have a choice. They take the 4 and the 5 and they have to go through Midtown. If you can take the local, the No. 6, that's a good idea and you definitely have to give yourself extra time. The Transit Authority says there'll be delays of 10 minutes, which always means to me that it will be a lot longer than that.

For everyone, it was a challenge. For many people, it was a hardship. They couldn't get to a doctor's appointment, they couldn't get to the office.

It's probably a tricky one for Freddy because it's really his constituents that are the most hurt by a fare hike.

It's disappointing, because there have been dramatic changes.

They know where the people are. But what are they doing for the people they're handing the literature to?

I'm not big on the mayor taking the subway. That doesn't make up for the fact that he cut the city's contribution to the MTA capital program from $100 million a year to $75 million. It doesn't make up for his voting for the first fare hike and cuts in elevator operators and station booth attendants.

I'm not big on the mayor taking the subway, ... That doesn't make up for the fact that he cut the city's contribution to the MTA capital program from $100 million a year to $75 million. It doesn't make up for his voting for the first fare hike and cuts in elevator operators and station booth attendants.

I'm worried about the politicians trying to use the money for things that make them look good and still leave the riders holding the bag.

Before the strike, there was considerable sympathy for the workers, but once the strike began, that clearly changed. The real winners are neither labor or management but the public that desperately wanted their subways and buses back.

If it works ... that would be great, but it should be subject to rigorous, tough testing.

I don't think they do it lightly. I don't think someone is saying, 'How can we make everybody's day more miserable?' They are plagued by the fact the system, in some places, hasn't been touched in decades. ... This is why you need to build a Second Avenue subway.