If you spent the first month of 2024 lazing around on the subway, you probably felt like you were experiencing significant delays with every turn. did I got on the train and didn’t become a crime victim just by blinking an eye.
That’s what we want to see, as subway ridership remains at around 71% of its normal pre-coronavirus level, bus ridership at 60% of its normal level, and commuter rail ridership at about three-quarters of its normal level. plug. lose No more bad service and no more fearful riders.
But it will take effort to keep straphangers on board the MTA, as the system is more at risk than ever. In fact, New York State Governor Cathy Futschul announced last week that the state is in extreme danger. The National Guard protects the safety of passengers.
So what exactly is going on with the MTA and the state and city governments responsible for operating it and keeping it safe?
Crime: F. Crime has skyrocketed this year. He currently has three murders on the rails, all random. A serious crime occurred in January. 47% increase, compared to the same month last year.Grand thefts increased, but 110 subway passengers and workers were also victims violent Felonies increased by 16 percent. Comparing violent felonies to January 2019, before cash bail and other criminal justice “reforms” ended for many crimes, there was a 61% increase in serious violent acts.
impact of crime service: Workers were forced off the tracks for several hours after an MTA conductor was slashed on the A Line last Friday.Last year, bus and subway workers suffered The number of assaults was 135, an increase from 125 in 2022.
Disability: D. Last year, the MTA lost $700 million to fare evasion. 46% and 13% of bus and subway Passenger refuses to pay.
Money is not the only issue. Chronic fare evaders are people who, disproportionately, actively handle goods, use drugs, and engage in violence.
Now we have a new element of disorder. It has migrants, including children, a pedestrian platform, and a train selling candy.
MTA Administrator Jano Lieber and New York City Transit Commissioner Richard Davey have always said correctly that disorder and violence are a crisis. Davey said in February that three recent subway shooting deaths were “totally unacceptable.”
But they are not in charge of the criminal justice system. Mr Davey said of the four people arrested so far this year for seven assaults on transport workers, including recent arrests and immediate releases, “there have been 50 arrests”.
city and state follow through Regarding crime and fare evasion: F. Only the state Legislature and Governor Fuchul can create criminal justice procedures to ensure repeat offenders stay behind bars, and only Mayor Adams can help ensure the severely mentally ill receive care. is.
The police are doing their job properly. “Enforcement across all categories is at or near historic highs,” NYPD Transportation Commissioner Michael Kemper said, adding that there were 1,533 transit arrests in January, more than before the “reforms.” This is an increase of 31% compared to January 2019. The number of summonses was 16,504, an increase of 74% from 2019. This year, police have recovered 17 guns from lawbreakers in transit.
However, Kemper said the suspects “sometimes return within hours.”
The MTA installs cameras across its systems — stations and now subways and buses — so police can quickly apprehend suspects. The third subway murder of the year, a shooting on a Bronx train in February, was filmed.the camera is not Deter It’s a crime though.
And it relies on unsustainable overtime for the mayor to regularly flood the subways with police whenever citizens start screaming about violence. The mayor needs to tell New Yorkers that we need more police.
Service interruption: C. 74 “serious incidents” occurred on the subway in January: More than 50 trains were taken out of service due to signal, track or other failures.
These 74 incidents marked the MTA’s worst performance since July 2018, when it suffered 77 incidents as it was recovering from chronic maintenance mismanagement that led to a “summer of hell” the previous year. .
Some of these incidents were related to preventable disturbances, such as people walking on railroad tracks, and the number of such incidents was 25, the second highest in eight years.
But the rest are not. These, including two recent derailments, are indicative of operational problems.
The disruption caused the MTA’s “percentage of services provided” to decline. The 12-month average was 94.1%, the same as last year. The year before the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it was over 95%. But when the train actually runs, it runs (mostly) as intended. – 83.4% of customer trips in January arrived within 5 minutes of schedule. However, this average is lower than his 84.8% of last year’s passengers.
Service flexibility: A-. Post-COVID-19, weekend and off-peak riders returned earlier than weekday commuters, so the MTA Increased number of trains on weekends, 8 to 6 minutes for #1 and #6, and 10 to 12 minutes to 8 to 10 minutes for some character lines. This can mean the difference between waiting 5 minutes or getting frustrated and her heading back upstairs to the taxi.
As the city looks to build more housing, the state, city, and MTA must work to add services. in front Cars will fill up like they did in 2015 and people will be sent to Uber.
The MTA is able to add services in part because the state raised $1.1 billion in payroll taxes on city jobs last year. Raising taxes is not optimal. It would be better to operate it more efficiently.
Weather: A-. Amazingly, in February we received 4 to 8 inches of snow on weekdays, yet surprisingly the MTA operated smoothly. The new part of weather resilience is that people are just staying home. Only 2.3 million people took the train in the snow, which is 1.6 million fewer than normal after the coronavirus. Also last fall, in the midst of what is now a regular occurrence of heavy rain, the MTA made the following decision: Shut down or pause Instead of inviting more people into the flood, destroy parts of the system. Although the MTA has spent billions of dollars protecting its physical assets from long-term weather damage, the railroads remain underground and at risk of flooding. It’s a good strategy to keep more people at home several times a year and avoid risks.
Cool new stuff: A. The MTA has put into service its brand new open gangway R211T subway cars. When you take the C line, you will encounter a train that vehicles can walk through. Finally, this may be a good thing for security. MTA employees could continue up and down, making chaotic calls to police several stops away. LED lights at stations aren’t exactly cool. teeth It’s cheaper and less irritating than traditional lighting.
New things that will give you a headache: B-. In January, commuters in Washington Heights noticed an opening in a train door and a bright yellow metal gate cutting off passengers on the platform from the tracks below. It’s not the most attractive thing and is not possible for some stations.But the barrier intention Prevents falls and, in some cases, violence. This gate is cheaper than spending billions of dollars on sliding glass home doors.
This image is one of those strange orange flexi-bollards the MTA installed at Harlem Station to protect conductors from attack. despair Rather than innovation. Stop attacks by prosecuting attackers.
Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue-JFK Airport Station’s new walk-through ticket gates are located in between. They are much easier to navigate for people with disabilities and people with strollers and luggage than the old-fashioned turnstiles, but they are proven to be effective. Fare evasion is easily hackable.That’s the problem no The design also helps prevent theft. The transportation system is not a prison and is designed to be difficult to get in and out of. Like violence, the solution to theft is coercion.
Bus speed: C. People who regularly took the bus during COVID-19 had a smoother ride. Fewer passengers were boarding, payments were suspended, traffic was reduced, and buses were traveling at nine miles per hour.They fell steadily and came back barely 8.1 mph.
The MTA is trying to increase bus speeds. further enforcement against cars blocking the road. Most drivers will stop blocking bus lanes or bus stops after receiving just one ticket generated by a camera.
The MTA also needs to increase bus speeds by reducing ride times. Now that the OMNY reader has been introduced, board your ride through the back door and tap your card there. The MTA is concerned that this will lead to more fare evasion, but the fix is mandatory and will not inconvenience people who: do pay.
Fare flexibility: B. It’s a good thing the MTA has instituted a “fare cap” system where after 12 rides in a week, subsequent rides are free. And it’s a good thing that, following criticism, the MTA allowed “fare cap” weeks to begin any time, not just Mondays. The MTA should also extend this flexibility to reward people who take more than a certain number of rides each month. You might also be able to give out a bonus ride for every 30 rides, regardless of the time frame.
MTA’s overall score remains the same. I Because it’s incomplete. For decades, the quality of subways, buses, and commuter rail has waxed and waned depending on political attention and resources.
Historically, it has taken a major crisis, like the Summer of Hell in 2017, for politicians to get the MTA to reverse its missteps.
On the service side, as much as January’s disruption is an anomaly, we are not close to a crisis.But when it comes to crime, we teeth We are currently in what appears to be a permanent crisis. The trains are (almost) on time, but they are much more dangerous than they were four years ago.
Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor for the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.
