Officials To Survey NYC Subway A Year Into Recovery

NEW YORK — New York City officials will head underground next week to survey the subway system about a year into the efforts to revive it. Led by Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Inwood), a slate of city and state lawmakers will join transportation advocates for the second annual "Riders Respond Transit Tour" on Oct. 3 and 4.

The group will visit stations in all five boroughs over a total of 24 hours to talk with riders about their experiences riding the beleaguered rails, Rodriguez's office said.

"Riders are frustrated. I'm ready to listen and hear how they're feeling in terms of safety, work with my colleagues and advocates, and hold a Council hearing after analyzing the information we gather," said Rodriguez, who chairs the Council's Transportation Committee, in a statement Wednesday.

Officials embarked on their first subway tour last August, less than two months after Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority amid a transit crisis.

Transit officials have tried to get the system back on track in the roughly 14 months since. MTA Chairman Joe Lhota has sought to bring some stability with his $836 million Subway Action Plan, while Andy Byford, the new president of New York City Transit, has unveiled an amibitious, expensive playbook for modernizing the sprawling network.

Rodriguez and his platoon of pols will scope out stations in Manhattan and The Bronx on Wednesday, then hit Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island on Thursday.

Along the way they'll ask straphangers to fill out a six-question survey about their satisfaction with the subway system and the MTA, said Maria Henderson, Rodriguez's communications director. The trek will end with a Thursday press conference outside Lower Manhattan's Bowling Green station.

The tour won't extend to the city's bus system, which has hemorrhaged passengers in recent years. But Henderson said officials would like to plan a future bus tour.

About a dozen city and state officials are sponsoring the tour, including Council Speaker Corey Johnson and state Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. Most, but not all, of them will be in attendance, Henderson said.

They aren't the only elected officials to take an interest in the subway. Cuomo, who controls the MTA, has been known to inspect the nuts and bolts of transit infrastructure for photo ops. But the Democratic governor hasn't actually ridden the subway since he christened the new Second Avenue line on Dec. 31, 2016, The New York Times reported earlier this month.

Transit advocates praised Rodriguez for taking a closer look at subway service.

"When he and his colleagues get on the train, they'll find what New York's several million riders are all too familiar with," such as delays and "dilapidated" stations, said John Raskin, the executive director of Riders Alliance, in a statement.

"They'll see how badly the system requires modernization," he added.

(Lead image: Photo by Maria Cormack-Pitts/Patch)