Saturday, October 4, 2014

MTA steals credit from Port Authority on CNN's top stations list

Hypothetically, if William Shakespeare posted on Facebook a "top ten" list of CNN's best books to read and the great writer noted that two of his literary works made  #4 and #5 on CNN's list, but one of them was Pride and Prejudice, then how would Jane Austen feel if Shakespeare stole credit for one of her books?  Ms.  Austen would probably be ticked off.  Of course this would be all imaginary but what the MTA did on Friday was real, stealing credit for something which is clearly not theirs.  CNN posted the 11 most amazing train stations in the world including Melbourne's Southern Cross Railway in Australia, Germany's Hundertwasser Bahnhof and others.  The MTA posted the CNN story on their Facebook page, saying "we made #4 and #5 on the list".  I would congratulate the MTA on making such a distinguished list - - twice (and the only agency to have two stations on that list)



But guess what was 4 and 5 on CNN's list?  The World Trade Center Transportation Hub and Grand Central Terminal respectively.  Wait!!!!  I said the WTC hub - - that's a Port Authority project, not the MTA.  How can the MTA claim it's theirs when they should know better not to steal credit from the Port Authority?  



 The MTA does own Grand Central and for 101 years, this terminal is a landmark of epic  proportions.  The WTC may not be a landmark and the price tag may be exorbitant but making CNN's top 11 station list is well deserved.  However the MTA has once again made a serious and embarrassing error in laying claim to a structure which is not theirs.  If the MTA doesn't even know their assets, how can they fail in their social media skills?  What makes this scary is that if the MTA makes a blatant error in this Facebook post, how many errors will they make in protecting our system from the next Hurricane Sandy?   How can they tells us to "see something?  Say something" when they don't know their own regional network? 

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