Guess what doesn’t help the New York City subway recover from the state of emergency declared by Gov. Cuomo, make stations safer in the face of a continuing terrorism threat or expand the paltry 23% of subway stations accessible to people unable to use stairs?
Spending roughly $1 billion on cosmetic enhancements to 33 subway stations.
Yet a gigantic line item for what’s called the “Enhanced Station Initiative” sits intact in the MTA capital program that runs through 2019 — terrible subway performance, constrained station evacuation routes and a persistent failure to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act be damned.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board has voted to approve three “packages” of work that will bring new signs; paint and tiling; lighting, and USB ports to stations, and is poised to rubber-stamp additional expensive upgrades in 2018.
Seriously? Cuomo, who oversees the MTA, and Joe Lhota, who runs it day-to-day, need to rethink their priorities. Now.
For a while, substantive plans to repair the subways — tracks, cars, signal systems and everything that truly matters to the typical straphanger — have been caught in the incessant blame game between Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio.
But while the MTA claims it badly needs $400 million from the city to execute emergency repair plans, it’s basically wasting $1 billion on something that is, by anyone’s honest assessment, a third-order priority.
Taxpayers and straphangers could and should have a serious debate over the right way to spend this billion dollars:
Many sane New Yorkers would say the best investment is on repairs to get subway service back on track.
Others would say it’s time to kick off a long-overdue effort to accelerate station accessibility for people in wheelchairs, the elderly, parents with strollers and others who have trouble hiking up and down often narrow and crowded subway stairs.
Others would say that, as terror incidents mount, it would be wise to invest in building better and more redundant subway evacuation routes and other security improvements. A billion dollars could sure buy a lot of counterterrorism technology.
A fresh coat of paint and USB ports wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of anyone’s list.
Personally, we’d vote on making major new investments in improving accessibility. That’s probably the single biggest neglected moral imperative.
The MTA has long begrudged fixing the problem, viewing elevators as distractions. The only plan it has in this regard is a list of “100 Key Stations” for elevator installation that stems from a lawsuit in the early 1990s — 25 years ago. The 100 stations will soon be completed.
What stations will get elevators next? How many could be accessible by 2025? What’s the long-range target? The MTA isn’t saying, because it hasn’t developed an accessibility goal, plan or strategy.
The MTA accords so little attention to this area it can barely be bothered to keep existing elevators running: Across the board, subway elevators are out of service the equivalent of 15 days a year.
Indeed, the MTA is even failing to seize the opportunity to install elevators in the Sixth and Third Aves. stations along the Manhattan stretch of the L train, which will be shut for up to two years for tunnel renovations beginning early in 2019.
When pressed recently on the issue, Lhota fell back on the excuse that “not every station can be reengineered for an elevator.”
Sorry, Chairman, but that’s a total dodge: You manage more than 350 inaccessible subway stations. There are plenty to work with.
Better governed subway systems have moved far ahead of New York’s. Boston and Chicago — with stations as old or older than New York’s — have made 70% of stations accessible compared with New York City’s 23%. Both cities are working steadily toward 100% station accessibility.
The rest of society agreed to address the issue 30 years ago. By caring more about paint and USB ports, the MTA is burning money and public goodwill at a time when both are in short supply. It should scrap the program and devote the resources to real priorities.
Pangilinan and Plaut work at TransitCenter, a foundation dedicated to improving public transportation.
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