NYC Subway Strike just hours away

With a contract deadline just after midnight tonight, representatives of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the transit workers' union met intermittently yesterday to stave off a strike as the agency's top negotiator warned that "we are not in a good place."
Although there was some small movement yesterday on the key issue of wages, the negotiator, Gary J. Dellaverson, said: "We should be closer now. There should be more progress, and I can't stand here and say that I'm comfortable with the negotiations where they stand at this instant."
Then he added, "I still remain hopeful."
He spoke just moments after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced a comprehensive emergency plan to contend with a walkout. The plan would increase ferry service, restrict entry to much of Manhattan to high-occupancy vehicles, clear several major thoroughfares including Fifth Avenue of nearly all traffic but buses and emergency vehicles, and allow groups of riders to haggle with cabbies.