Subway Riders Still Frustrated Despite Fixes, Pols' Tour Finds

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, NY — A two-day expedition to more than two dozen stations left local officials with one major takeaway: New York City's subways are still a mess, and riders are still fed up.

City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Inwood) led a rotating cast of politicians and advocates on a five-borough tour of the city's beleaguered train system Wednesday and Thursday. The trek was a reprise of last year's inaugural tour, which came around the peak of the recent subway crisis.

Joined at times by transit personnel, the group surveyed hundreds of straphangers about their satisfaction with the subway and the MTA itself. Rodriguez said riders talked about delays, crowded stations and waits for trains. If changes are happening, he said, they're not being felt underground.

"No one is denying the frustration, the rights of riders to be frustrated," Rodriguez, who chairs the Council's Transportation Committee, said outside the Bowling Green station Thursday evening after winding down the tour on Staten Island.

"This crisis didn’t happen overnight. This is the result of decades of mismanagement, a lack of funding and projects not being done on time and not focusing on repairs and maintenance."

State legislators, City Council members and three borough presidents joined Rodriguez as he traversed stations from the Bronx to Staten Island.

Advocates from Transportation Alternatives, Riders Alliance and the Sierra Club also participated, Rodriguez said. MTA employees, including customer service personnel, construction project officials and some new group station managers, also met the tour along the route, the transit agency said.

The survey data collected on the tour will eventually be released and discussed at a Transportation Committee hearing planned for later this month, Rodriguez's office said.

"There's great value in getting first-hand experience seeing the conditions in different stations and learning from commuters throughout the city," said Marco Conner, Transportation Alternatives' legislative and legal director. "What people want in Staten Island is often very different from what people want in Manhattan."

Rodriguez said he saw a pattern across the city: stations in underserved neighborhoods populated mainly by people of color were generally in rougher shape, had less staff and weren't as accessible to disabled riders compared to stops in wealthier areas.

Rodriguez also expressed concern about the low proportion of stations — about a quarter — accessible to disabled riders.

"All New Yorkers deserve to have the same quality of services," Rodriguez said.

The MTA has sought to stabilize the subways while making long-term plans to modernize the system in the 14 months since Rodriguez's first tour.

MTA Chairman Joe Lhota has touted his $836 million Subway Action Plan meant to steady the system. In May, newly minted New York City Transit President Andy Byford unveiled his multibillion-dollar "Fast Forward" plan to overhaul the subway's outdated signal system in a decade and greatly expand the number of accessible stations, among other transit improvements.

Several repair and renovation projects are also in the works around the city. The revamped 72nd Street B/C stop on the Upper West Side reopened this week, and the 163rd Street C train station in Washington Heights reopened late last month.

"We were happy to meet up with the tour at numerous points to talk about the extensive repair, renovation and modernization work being done throughout the system in every borough," MTA spokesman Shams Tarek said in a statement. "The Fast Forward Plan is a blueprint for giving New Yorkers the transit system they deserve and we welcome feedback from the public as we work to implement its goals."

But the lingering question is how to pay for the crucial work that needs to be done. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who controls the MTA, favors congestion pricing, a plan to fund the transit agency with tolls on vehicles entering central and lower Manhattan. The idea has been discussed for years but has not gainted much traction in the state Legislature.

"There is only one way it happens, that is congestion pricing," Cuomo said at a Manhattan event Thursday. "Everything else is political blather."

Mayor Bill de Blasio, the governor's political nemesis, favors a "millionaire's tax," an income tax hike for the richest New Yorkers that would help support the MTA. But he has expressed more openness toward congestion pricing in recent months.

To Rogriguez, the money question doesn't have just one answer — congestion pricing, the millionaire's tax and other funding solutions should be used to turn the system around, he said.

The councilman said he hopes Byford understands riders' frustrations as he pushes his plan forward. The MTA should also do a better job of communicating its efforts to straphangers overall, he said.

"There’s no time to wait," Rodriguez said. "People are fed up, people are tired, people want to be listened (to), and people want action more than words."

(Lead image: Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez led officials and advocates on a two-day, five-borough tour of New York City's train system. Photo courtesy of Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez's Office)