The Straphangers Campaign has long been a big supporter of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's five-year rebuilding programs. A new plan - running from 2010 to 2014 - is now pending before the state Legislature.
More than $75 billion has been spent since 1982 to help bring the subways, buses and commuter rail to a state of good repair.
Some riders are surprised that the Campaign strongly pleads the case for billions in funding for metropolitan transit. To understand why, you have to go back to our beginnings in the late 1970s.
It was a time when the transit system was at the point of collapse after decades of disinvestment. By 1981, things had hit rock bottom: There were 21 derailments and a rash of subway car fires so severe the National Transportation Safety Board launched a two-year investigation.
Every one of the nearly 6,000 subway cars were covered with grafitti and the Campaign rated cars for such defects as broken doors and lights. Annual ridership dropped to its lowest levels since 1917, when the New York City subway system was much smaller. The subways not only performed poorly, they were killing the City's economy. Businesses cited poor transportation as a leading reason for abandoning New York.
Since then, much has been done to rebuild our vital transportation network. Thousands of new subway cars, buses, commuter rail, and paratransit vehicles have gone into service. Hundreds of miles of track have been replaced. Nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars were spent to automate turnstiles and make it possible to offer a wide array of fare discounts. More than half of the 468 subway stations have been rehabilitated.
New York must not go back to the days of disinvestment. That's why the Campaign believes that the legislature will find ways to continue the quarter-century policy of investing adequately in transit.
In May, the state legislature provided funding for the first two-years of the MTA's 2010-2014 capital program. So it will be critical for the MTA to deliver on those first two years and show it can effectively handle an infusion of funding for the last three years of the program.
As required by law, the MTA sent its 2010 to 2014 plan to Albany in October. This plan has a number of promising features:
- From a rider's point of view, it's hard to disagree with the improvements promised. This includes thousands of new subway cars, buses and commuter coaches; the "renewal" of 50 subway stations; replacement of scores of miles of track and tunnel lighting; and upgrading of ancient signals and subway fans. It also calls for progress on such passenger amenities as station countdown clocks and a new, more convenient and flexible smart card to replace the MetroCard system.
- The new "station renewal" program has particular promise. Rather than a top-to-bottom rehabilitation of a station costing tens of millions of dollars and taking a long time, the renewal program calls for tackling selective conditions stations in the worst shape.
- The MTA also deserves credit for providing more information on how it chose among certain priorities, including its capital program question and answer document on the MTA's website.
- The Campaign is especially encouraged by the proposed capital programs commitment to "Bus Rapid Transit" strategies to make bus service faster and more reliable. The 2010-2014 Capital Program includes: "$135 million in funding ... programmed to implement the three remaining Phase I BRT corridors - 34th St. in Manhattan, Hylan Blvd. in Staten Island, and a third corridor that is not yet determined."
To achieve these goals, MTA capital projects will need to be better managed. These tough economic times demand savings in capital project construction, as well as more effective management and a better record at meeting promised schedules and budgets. The new MTA management must be able to come back to the legislature and to the riders and say, we did what we promised, on time and on budget. We found new ways to achieve the goals we set forth and we found ways to do it for less.
Straphangers strongly agrees with the finding of the Citizens Budget Commission in a recent report that the MTA's capital plan "should commit to an improved management information system for tracking capital projects and to greater transparency in informing the public about the status of its capital projects." As CBC says, "The public should know how its money is being used."