This week, Gene Russianoff, staff lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, is answering selected questions from City Room readers about improving New York City's public transportation, where the city stands on congestion pricing and concerns about the subways and buses.

Question: Why is it that a "sick passenger" can cause delays of up to half an hour? Can't the passenger just be taken off the train and treated in the station so that during rush hour commuters aren't an hour late for work?
-- Posted by Lauren

A wealthy former MTA chairman not only has a police-issued parking permit - but also a no-cost parking spot at a Metro-North station in a tony Westchester village.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently slashed the number of dashboard placards issued through the MTA Police Department - but politically connected Virgil Conway, who left the board in 2001, managed to keep the perk, the Daily News has learned.

In 1982, Richard Ravitch, then chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, cobbled together $8.5 billion in city, state and federal financing to fund an MTA Capital Plan that helped turn the troubled system around.

The year 2007 may prove to be one of the most important years in the storied history of New York City's development. In a future timeline of urban advances, it might be printed in as big a font and as bold a type as 1811--when the grid system was adopted--or 1904--when the I.R.T. subway opened. The text adjacent to 2007 could say something like "the start of livable streets," or "the bike boom begins," or "congestion pricing kicks off." It may turn out that all of those descriptions may suit 2007. The real question is, in hindsight, will they?

"'Like twin deadbeat dads, Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki are more focused on football than meeting their financial responsibilities.'

Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a transit advocacy group"

In the past, your fare money has gone to keep NYC subways and buses operating smoothly. Now, because the Metropolitan Transit Authority is in serious debt, your fare money is being used to pay interest, and as a result, our transit system is on the brink of collapse.

Nearly 70 Bridges and Tunnels employees at the financially troubled MTA are given $1 million worth of cars to commute to and from work, according to records obtained by Newsday.

The subsidiary's fleet is the largest among the more than 130 vehicles that Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees may use for commuting. By contrast, only three of the top officials at the MTA's headquarters are assigned cars. At NYC Transit -- which employs more than 25 times the number of people than at Bridges and Tunnels -- only 46 people are assigned cars.

Anti-fare hike protesters are expected to flood a meeting of the MTA board tomorrow -- the last such meeting before an expected vote to raise transit prices next year.

Organizers are expected to seize on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's announcement earlier this month that it expects to end this year with about $300 million more than it had anticipated in subsidies and savings.

With a fare increase all but guaranteed, the MTA defended itself Thursday against a barrage of criticism that the hikes aren't really necessary. NY1 transit reporter Bobby Cuza filed the following report.

The Thanksgiving-themed protesters who turned out at Thursday's MTA board meeting were demanding to know why the agency is proceeding with fare increases, even after it announced that revenues are running about $300 better than expected this year.