I know construction in US is expensive but it can't be that bad.
"Subway workers now make an average of $170,000 annually in salary, overtime and benefits, according to a Times analysis of data compiled by the federal Department of Transportation. That is far more than in any other American transit system; the average in cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington is about $100,000 in total compensation annually.
The pay for managers is even more extraordinary. The nearly 2,500 people who work in New York subway administration make, on average, $280,000 in salary, overtime and benefits. The average elsewhere is $115,000."
Why are we paying these employees such an insane amount of money relative to our peers? Political failure[3]. Due to the Triborough Amendment clause of the Taylor Law, anytime negotiations with the union fall through, the terms of the previous contract continue. Thus, the Transit Workers Union (TWU) have no incentive to negotiate in good faith. They can't strike, but they still get a pretty sweet deal.
The solution to this starts at the top. We need to vote out our current corrupt (or at the very least, easily cowed) government and put in place people who will make this a priority and not be completely beholden to special interests.
[1] http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/mta-wrote-4-9m-chec...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/nyregion/new-york-subway-...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Law#Criticism_and_refor...
I also have no idea what better alternative there is when a contract negotiation fails. Is the system supposed to stop altogether until a new contract is agreed upon? Are the workers expected to go without pay? The fact is that the union's demands have not been unreasonable -- they ask to keep benefits, to have pay increases that basically track the cost of living in NYC, and occasional to expand low-cost benefits (e.g. allowing all employees to ride LIRR and MNR for free, rather than just employees who live outside NYC).
MTA has other unusual issues... they have a very powerful union that has negotiated wacky deals over the years. In some areas, pretty much everyone retires with dramatically more expensive disability retirements. (See: https://nypost.com/2014/08/06/nearly-all-lirr-workers-have-d... )They also have the ability to "spike" pensions with overtime that most NY government workers outside of police and fire cannot do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_Retirement_Act
The subway workers are represented by TWU local 100; LIRR workers are represented by 7 different unions, all separate from the subway workers.
Usually if the figure includes benefits (as it does in this case) the pension contributions are included. Along with things like medical,life, and disability insurance.
Usually when you total everything up it comes to around twice what people get paid. I worked at a place with federal civil servants, and the total cost to the government for a civil servant was costed out at 2.2x salary.
There's the problem. Half the population is convinced that the people who do all the work to make living in a city possible should not be able to afford to live in said city.
San Francisco is the most extreme example of this insanity, where everyone in the service sector either has multi-hour commutes, or live in a closet with 3 other roommates.
Japan is an interesting comparison because the lines are private and independently owned and so there's competition[1]. Once upon a time the NYC train line were private and independently owned they were the BMT, IRT and the IND[2]. You still vestiges of this in some stations. At any rate it was thought that that having privately owned train lines might allow them to hold the city hostage and so they were bought by the city. Obviously there's a great irony in that now.
[1] https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2011/10/why-tokyos-pr...
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/30/nyregion/about-new-york-al...
Also, isn't there an interesting relationship b/w the state and the city wrt funding where the state is responsible for the subway and not the city?
The MTA's internal organization is also a total mess. Metro-North and LIRR use nearly identical equipment (identical except for power systems) but are considered separate agencies within the MTA. The subway system is also considered separate, and in fact there is yet another internal division in the subway: IRT, BMT, and IND (internally referred to as 'A', 'B1', and 'B2' divisions). So there is needless duplication in the management structure. Beyond that, there are two more MTA railroads that are easy to forget about: the Staten Island railroad, and the South Brooklyn Railway (which may be operated as part of the subway's "C" division maintenance group, I am a bit fuzzy on the details there). Incredibly, the SIR uses the same equipment as the BMT and IND, so it is a bit difficult to understand why it is managed separately.