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MTA wants to light up tunnels with ads

By Marlene Naanes, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | MNaanes@am-ny.com

October 3, 2008

Straphangers will no longer be staring out into pitch darkness in the subway tunnels next year if the MTA gets its way and is able to sell projected video ads along the Shuttle train route.

Facing a nearly $1 billion budget gap next year, the tunnel projections are just one in a series of ideas the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to offer to boost advertising revenues by 25 percent, officials said Friday. The agency currently rakes in some $125 million in ad revenues annually.

"In light of the current fiscal crisis, we are pushing the envelope by introducing new advertising strategies that could generate millions in additional revenue for the transit system," MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot Sander said in a statement.

The tunnel ads could reap the agency up to and additional $1 million annually, as could trains wrapped in ads, officials said. The MTA would charge up to $400,000 a month for an ad blitz, which would include a train wrapped in ads inside and out.

The agency is also testing digital ads on an LCD screen on the outside of an M23 bus, hoping to expand that pilot project to 200 buses. A similar pilot on the inside of Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains is expected to begin early next year.