Rebuild New York Subways Under New Leadership, Report Urges

Nice pipe dream...however Andy will never let control go to someone else. Too busy installing lights on bridges and renaming them!

And let's not forget that New York City is dead last among major cities in the U.S. in terms of subway accessibility, with the absence of elevators. People in wheelchairs can't get to work or to doctors; the elderly are shut out; parents with strollers must lug them up stairs; tourists must drag their luggage up and down stairs; people with injuries are also stuck. It's a matter of civil rights, and the cost to our economy is obvious. For shame! NYC has been out of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act for nearly three decades.

The New York Metropolitan Area transportation infrastructure needs a quantum leap overhaul in its entirety. Subways and commuter rail services have ancient equipment and highways are extremely congested. It's an enormous drag on the economy. My own experience is that I spend an hour in stop and go traffic on the Merritt Parkway every single workday. My wife sits on the train for 80 minutes for a 50 mile trip to Grand Central. But, there is no better way for us to get to work. The tristate area highway and rail infrastructure was designed over 50 years ago and doesn't fit today's commuting patterns anymore. I commute from one suburb to another and the car is the only transport option. Why couldn't there be a train? There is no option for high-speed rail to Manhattan to do those 50 miles a little faster. Subways, MetroNorth and NJ Transit don't connect well. This drives people into cars. Not only does there need to be a new public benefit corporation for the subways, let's add highways and trains as well. The current authorities are totally politicized and bureaucratic and can't get anything done. An example is Chris Christie's Hudson tunnel fiasco. ` We should be able to make our infrastructure meet market demand much better.

All this will never occur since this is NYC and politics always wins. However, since we are dreaming how about a revamped fare based on distance traveled to provide adequate future funds. Modern technology makes this easy! Also this would provide some fairness among the fees paid by all various MTA users. Why should the Times Sq shuttle cost the same as a trip from Woodlawn to Coney Island? Or why should that 30 mile journey cost less than the few miles from Mt. Vernon to New Rochelle? Subsidies could also be provided to low income riders if wanted but otherwise treat all riders the same.

24 hour subway service is one of the most important services for working class new yorkers on the night shifts that run this great city. It is incredible to me that any advocacy group could propose something that would deepen the class divide in this town. I agree with Professor Mitchell Moss comments in Daily News article on this topic, an elitist idea. The legislature needs to reestablish dedicated revenues to fund public transit, including having the real estate industry pay it's fair share for the enhanced values mass transit brings to their properties. We also do not need another authority! Creating a fairer 'split' of TBTA revenues, which have historically been unfair to NYCTA, might be a first step, not another bonding authority! 24 hour subway service is one of the things that makes new york, new york. How terrible that a privileged group like this wants to make things even tougher for those that have night jobs in our city.

Remember back in the "bad old days", when NY could call upon public-spirited, visionaries and highly-competent leaders like Richard Ravitch and Felix Rohatyn to step up and turn things around? Where are their likes NOW? Somehow the likes of Lhota, Ferrer, and Prendergast just don't measure up. Not to mention the aggressive and self-promoting Cuomo and his management-by-photo-op approach? Where's the like of Hugh Carey, who recruited talented people Ravitch and Rohatyn and who himself worked hard to turn NYC and its transport system around, at a time when many thought that was impossible?

The benefit of this idea is the hope that a new organization would de-politicize the issues around the subway. The current MTA operates at the whim of the governor in power, and therefore will always have its budget raided for vanity projects (like Chuck Close Murals at 2nd ave) by politicians who lack the foresight or expertise to modernize a subway. The type of org the RPA is calling for would be insulated from the grind of NY politics. HOWEVER. As crappy as the current set up is, I'm skeptical that the setup the RPA calls for wouldn't become a river of patronage and graft, especially as I see organizations like Durst, Cushman, and other developers are heavily represented on the RPA's board. A transpiration authority at the whim of politicians might be frustrating but at least the public can vote them out. I seem to remember another man who set up a transportation authority insulated from politics so he could hand out contracts to favored developers, his name was Robert Moses.

"sufficient funding to rebuild the entire subway system within 15 years." Hahahahahahahahahahah! "The report took five years to produce." Hahahahahahah It took 5 years just to write the report and the whole system will be rebuilt in 15?? What a joke.

Commuter tax, anyone???

One big problem I see with a Subway Reconstruction Public Benefit Corporation is the fact that you're erecting a wall between the people that design and build the subway and those that are going to have to maintain it. Also, it's not as if a bunch of brand new people are going to magically appear to run the new corporation, it's mostly just going to be folks from MTA Capital Construction. It seems to me like a half measure for what we should probably do, and that's break up the MTA into two new groups. One for subway/bus controlled by the City and one for commuter rail controlled by the State. The big question is where does Bridge and Tunnel go, which provides over $1 billion in funding to public transit? I'd say split the assets between City and State DOT, and mandate that toll money must be used to fund public transit. Personally, I think there's a lot of really talented engineers and career managers at NYCT, and they could fix the subway if politicians and stooges like Joe Lhota got out of the way. Just think, no more vanity projects like Cuomo's stupid LGA Airtrain from Willets Point! Oh course, the City would need to levy taxes without approval from the State, and that's never going to happen.

Create a new entity and a new bureaucracy to spend taxpayer dollars and push forth the inevitable huge budget overruns and delays...

What's with this crazy talk of shutting down the subways at night so they can make repairs? I get it, repairs are necessary but can't they do it one line at a time? We can live with that.

Gov. Paterson pushed through $1.5 BILLION in new MTA taxes (on top of the current MTA taxes) less than 8 years ago. Unfortunately, Gov. Cuomo gave away most of the revenue away to the TWU. Plus his pension reform of 2012 passed NYC and the MTA by, so there are a lot of missed opportunities to fix the system.

I support giving the MTA the boot but out the contract out for bid. Let MTR run the thing.

I regularly travel between NYC, Shanghai and Hong Kong. While Hong Kong and Shanghai's systems gleams with efficiency, safety, modernity and cleanliness, NYC's is utterly (and beyond) shameful. A Chinese friend visiting NYC said the NYC subway looked like a horror movie set---just as 4 huge rats ran along the rail just beneath us. I could not argue against his point.

This is a great idea!! Definitely time to scrap the MTA and start fresh.

The city has too many people and not enough capacity too move them all.

If the RPA wants a model for this new agency they need look no further than the New York City School Construction Authority. Face with the same problems the MTA faced the NYCSCA has quietly accomplished many of the goals of opening and rebuilding schools.

Right.... create a "corporation" so the subway can run just as "efficiently" as the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation - currently a bankrupt mess due to horrible mismanagement.

This is a terrible idea for those who live in Eastern Queens. Service is consistently terrible as is, and bus service is equally as bad. I'm all for getting a new organization, assuming that its properly managed, to handle repairs and such for the subway system. Just look at how long it has taken the 7 line to get signal updates. It's hitting its 10th year and I don't believe they're even half way done.

The "solution" fails to address the problem, although it sounds very nice. Yes, the facts are simple. The MTA is a political animal, as is the Port of New York Authority. So money is spent on what is expected to be politically popular. Diverting $2 BILLION to the NJ budget to rebuild the Pulaski Skyway. $1-2 BILLION for the Fulton Street boondoggle that does nothing to make the commute better. $2 BILLION for 2 Broadway. A Billion here, a BILLIN there and in the words of Evert Dirksen, you're talking about real money. Never mind how much they can make disappear "fixing up" subway stations that wind up no better than before. How about adding a 60 foot car to every train for a 10% increase in capacity? Virtually all stations can handle this. How about cutting the cables that connect the tracks to the towers and replacing them with multiplexors (mux). The tower end mux could have 2 outputs - one for the existing tower and one to a new, electronic tower that could be installed in tandem with the existing tower. When testing is complete, merely cut over to the new tower. Presto, new signal system with virtually no disruption and short time period. Over time, track side muxes can be moved out to the tracks and replaced with updated train positioning sensors, but the infrastructure would already be in place. I have a management solution, too. NYC sue the MTA for failing to maintain city property entrusted to their use and care. Turn TBTA facilities over to NYC DOT.

The suggestion to close the subways late at night during the week seems to be a small part of this regional plan. I'm not sure how effective it would be. 12:30 to 5:00 AM is a relatively short window to achieve significant work, when you consider whatever set-up and wrap-up is needed. That's probably why current Fastrack projects are from 10PM to 5AM. Also, this is a huge system, so it can't shut down all at once. Would 12:30 be the time the last train leaves its terminal or arrives? Because of such long routes, shuttle buses replacing entire lines would probably have to be broken into 2 or 3 routes. Even with far less traffic at night and higher frequencies, these shuttles wouldn't be as fast as the subway. Lastly, yes, only 1.5 of daily riders take the subway on late weeknights, but it's a necessity for most of them. I had a job with non-traditional hours. Riding to or from work in middle of the night wasn't great, but it got me to where I had to go. Although I kind of miss having a commute during which people weren't poking me with their elbows or twisting around at odd angles to keep balance on a crowded train. It pains me to say it, but if closures were necessary, I would prefer a long shutdown to accomplish work as soon as possible. How long have they been working on signal modernization on the 5-Dyre Ave line?

"It is only the fourth such report to be released by the association in nearly a century." Sounds impressive, glad they decided to take on this issue. But then: "The 1996 report called for building a Second Avenue subway and creating a business district on the Far West Side of Manhattan, both of which are now a reality." In hindsight, neither of these projects seem as brilliant or necessary as this piece suggests. It would have been much more beneficial to the public for these seers to address the problem before it became a maddening crisis.

Closing down service overnight is wrong. If 20% of the trunk lines (lines - not train letters or numbers) are out of service now on a typical night, it would require 5x the number of workers to perform repairs/upgrades if the entire system were shut down. This sounds economically non-productive. Is the work now being done proceeding at the most efficient pace?

If ridership really is low late at night, then maybe it could be a good idea to close the subway lines especially since most cities do that with theirs' anyway. Just run shuttle buses in their places. Another reason why most cities don't run their subways all the time is due to costs. However, one of the big problems with keeping the subway system up to speed is having the population rises faster than it can keep up with it especially with the idea to make almost every major subway stop a major development site to which some makes it feel like a bad idea not to mention pricing out those who living there before it was considered popular. More importantly, I doubt this is even something that congestion pricing could fix considering that it will be placed on the backs of those who pretty much can't use the subway to begin in not just seeing it as a regressive but also has a punishment for having such limited choices to getting around. Still, I feel that the MTA should be audited to where all their revenues are going to before they even think of hiking any of their fares and tolls or even thinking about placing a new source of revenue such as congestion pricing, which is highly opposed by most NYers according a to a recent study. The only problem with auditing the MTA and fixing where their spending is going won't be good for the supporters of congestion pricing especially when it will make their idea feel obsolete and unnecessary.

If they're proposing that subway lines that are not being repaired be closed at night, then making repairs is not the reason for closing them.

The suggestion to not operate 24 hour subways should not be discarded out of hand. No major subway in the world runs all or most of its lines 24/7. Chicago runs two lines 24 hours, and the small Copenhagen Metro runs its two lines 24 hours, but that is about it. A handful of cities, including Philadelphia and Berlin run 24 hours on weekends, which is what the report is suggesting. There is obviously a reason for this kind of operation -- maintenance, the kind of maintenance that is slowly killing the daytime NYC subway operations one delay at a time. Of course, New Yorkers are bawling and wailing over the potential loss of overnight subway service largely because they have never known anything else. Sure, buses are slower, but at nighttime when there is no traffic the road system in New York can be very fast and a network of buses duplicating subway stops (and not every-two-block local stops) could be much faster than feared. Plus, overnight subway frequency can be terrible, so while a bus might be 20 min slower if the buses run often a rider might still come out ahead compared to waiting for 30 minutes in an isolated station for a train to appear. And that's really the point -- to get those late night tourists and workers where they need to go. It is not impossible to envision a late night network where a couple lines still run but the rest shut down and switch to rapid bus shuttles. Other cities have done it, New York can too.

I haven't seen the report, but I wonder: did it consider the wisdom of creating yet another authority selling revenue bonds, the effect on the market for NY State municipalities and agencies' bonds; did it consider that more and more workers have jobs that lend themselves to telecommuting and staggered hours (obviously hospita, construction and hospitality industry workers cannot do this) and the effect on demand for transit in peak periods; do the planners realize that the people who ride the subways in the middle of the night are precisely those who cannot afford cabs and Uber (the hipsters in Williamsburg, served by the L can) and who live furthest away from their low-paying jobs; can our economy EVER afford to finance enough subways or light surface rail to eliminate the two-fare trips from the outer boroughs (they aren't two fare anymore, but the image persists). I think the big commuter coaches that go to two fare zones should cost more, with employers incentivized to subsidize the fares because the riders don't seem to be high earners -- these buses congest the avenues in peak hours and delay regular MTA buses.

Why spend a lot of money on an upgrade that is doomed to be flooded in 50 years?

"subway reconstruction public benefit corporation" Public benefit corporation? Now that's an oxymoron if ever I've heard one. Here's a quick solution for our cash-strapped subway system: a transaction tax on Wall Street. It's extraordinary that no one asks the obvious question. In the global center of capitalism in one of the richest cities on the planet, why is it that public infrastructure is crumbling? Private opulence but public squalor - the maxim for 21st century corporate capitalism.

State commissions under Cuomo have proven politically weak. See: Moreland Commission, fired when its corruption investigation got too close to Cuomo. This will suffer the same fate, since it's clear that Cuomo has an agenda about funding our subways. This proposal should be DOA.

Another Authority that has to ability to borrow money outside of state constitutional limits, hire over priced political hacks into positions that they are not qualified for and create another patronage mill, for, in this state, the democratic oligarchy. No! Dedicated Lock Box revenue streams that cannot be redirected by greedy & seedy politicians. Dedicated highway funds only to highway projects without the diversion of 70% of the money. Highway tolls should not be used for canals and parks. Dedicated mass transit funds and revenue streams that cannot be diverted to pet projects of ambitious politicians. And last but not least, sure and swift prison time for convicted corrupt politicians with forfeiture of all pension rights and a reimbursement requirement if fiduciary responsibility is breached.

Once you kill the golden goose there are no more eggs. Stealing funds from the MTA for pet projects or to avoid tax increases has gone on for years. A plan for a public transport system cannot ignore that we need to address the overwhelming effect of motor vehicles on the roads. We need a comprehensive transportation plan that prioritizes public transport.

“We’re talking about building a subway system for the 21st century and we can’t rely on a 20th-century agency to do it,” If that is true, then we should eliminate the corresponding 20th century agencies. We do not need a new bureaucracy for the 21st century. What we need are our elected officials to do their jobs.

Visit Hong Kong to see for yourself how a subway system can run when properly managed and staffed with conscientious workers. Trains run frequently. Frequently means continuously during rush hour, maybe every three minutes in off-peak times and every five minutes at night. Trains run ON TIME. Stations are safe. Both stations and trains have doors, so no one can fall, jump or be pushed in front of a train. Transfers are a breeze. Lines integrate seamlessly. Signage is excellent. Signage and audible messages are presented in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Stations and trains are spotlessly clean! Cell phones work. In the stations, on the escalators, on the stairs, on the platforms, in the trains. Even when the trains run under the ocean! In contrast, even the new Second Avenue line does not have safety doors on the platform. The sad fact in New York is that the vested interests have overwhelmed the MTA. It is highly doubtful that byzantine NY politics will ever develop the political will to radically improve the MTA. If you want to see what really is possible, visit Hong Kong to ride their MTR system. I always tell people it is like visiting the future, though in NY's case that may not be true.

How are we to react to this? NYS already sees too many officials passing the buck to unelected state commissions, regional commissions, etc. The MTA is barely accountable to anyone as things stand, with the governor and mayor, city and suburbs, upstate and downstate all point to each other. Give power to the appropriate officials and then hold them accountable.