NYC Subway Plan Aims To Resurrect Transit Over Next Decade

NEW YORK, NY — The president of New York City Transit unveiled a sweeping plan Wednesday to rescue the city's subways and buses from their destitute state and restore straphangers' faith in public transportation. Andy Byford's proposal would modernize most of the subway's aging signals three decades faster than previously expected and make dozens more stations accessible to disabled riders.

The plan, dubbed "Fast Forward," also includes structural changes to improve management, streamline operations and make the agency more accountable to riders.

"This is about giving New Yorkers a modern, efficient, dynamic and accountable transit organization that delivers on its promises and puts customers first," Byford told the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board on Wednesday.

The proposal has been in the works since Byford took over New York City Transit, the arm of the MTA that operates the city subways and buses, in January.

As expected, it goes well beyond the scope of the Subway Action Plan, the $836 million initiative MTA Chairman Joe Lhota put together last summer after Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the agency.

There is not yet an official price tag for Byford's ambitious short- and long-term goals. News reports indicated the plan could cost $19 billion in the first five years and another $18 billion in the following five years, but MTA officials said cost estimates have yet to be finalized.

Accelerating the rollout of a modern signal system, known as communications-based train control, was a centerpiece of Byford's plan. He wants replace the decades-old signals, which frequently cause delays, across most of the subway system within the next 10 years — 75 percent faster than the old timeline of 40 years.

Key segments of six bustling subway corridors serving about 3 million riders daily — including the Lexington Avenue (4/5/6) and Eighth Avenue (A/C/E) lines — will get new signals in the first five years, followed by five more corridors serving 2 million riders in the following five years.

"We’re not only tackling the older lines; we’re also tackling those lines that really need modern signaling," Byford said.

It won't be a painless process — signal work could close the designated segments at night, on weekends or both for up to two and a half years, the plan says.

But in the end almost all the system's daily riders will be served by functioning signals that will increase capacity and reliability, Byford said. The effort could move more quickly if new technologies such as ultra-wideband signaling prove to be workable in tests.

The plan would more than double the pace of accessibility upgrades in the subway. Over 50 additional stations would be made accessible in the first five years so no rider is ever more than two stations away from an accessible stop, Byford said. The following five years would include upgrades at 130 more stations.

Byford said he plans to improve Access-A-Ride service and hire an accesibility adviser who will report directly to him on accessibility issues within the system.

The plan will revamp New York City Transit's management structure by creating "group station managers" who will each be responsible for everything that happens in 20 to 25 stations, Byford said.

Byford also wants to increase communication and accountability for customers. His plan includes more detailed rider surveys and quarterly reports on what improvements straphangers can expect to see in the following months.

"That will be absolutely binary — we'll either meet those targets or we won't," Byford said.

These new proposals follow the release last month of Byford's plan to overhaul the city's bus network. His agency plans to redesign bus routes in every borough over the next three years, roll out hundreds of new buses in the next decade and allow riders to board at any door by 2020.

That plan requires help from New York City officials in enforcing bus lane rules and installing technology that can get buses through traffic intersections more quickly.

MTA Board members and transit advocates praised the scope and ambition of Byford's plan, saying it marked a key first step toward creating a transportation system the nation's largest city deserves.

"Having a leader release a comprehensive roadmap to modernize a giant bureaucratic agency and the transit system it runs is not something that happens every day," said Kate Slevin, the senior vice president of state programs at advocacy for the Regional Plan Association. "This is a historic occasion."

But getting the work done will require funding, which often gets caught up in political squabbles.

The plan will be incorporated into the MTA's 2020-2024 Capital Program, which is paid for with state, city and federal money. A deal to fund the current 2015-2019 capital plan was reportedly reached only after a fight between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo, who controls the MTA.

The feuding Democrats recently quarreled over the city's $418 million contribution to the Subway Action Plan, an amount much smaller than what's at stake in Byford's plan. The city ultimately agreed to make the payment after pressure from Cuomo.

MTA Board members said it will take bold steps and frank conversations to make Byford's plan work.

"We’d be naïve to think this money’s just going to flow in," said Scott Rechler, a Cuomo appointee to the board. "It’s going to take tough decisions and this board needs to provide the leadership."

Cuomo and de Blasio have competing plans to create new revenue for the MTA. The governor has supported congestion pricing, which would toll cars entering part of Manhattan, while the mayor wants a "millionaire's tax," an income tax hike for the richest New Yorkers.

The mayor stood by the millionaire's tax as the best long-term transit funding stream. He praised Byford's plan but expressed skepticism that it would be implemented well, given the MTA's dubious track record with large projects.

"As much as I’m really happy to see a plan that actually gets at the essentials and puts a real price tag on it, it’s still the MTA," de Blasio said Wednesday at an unreleated news conference.

Cuomo's press secretary, Dani Lever, said the governor's office has not seen the plan but wants it to be "expeditious and realistic."

"(W)e made it clear to the Chairman that before it is finalized, the MTA must bring in the top tech experts in the nation because if we can experiment with self-driving vehicles, there must be an alternative technology for the subways," Lever said in a statement.

(Lead image: New York City Transit President Andy Byford appears at an event in February 2018. Photo by Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit)