MTA budget crunch could lead to further disrepair, watchdog warns

Plus: MTA seeks ban on man accused of attacking transit employee; Hoboken marks 4 years without a traffic death [FORWARD TO A FRIEND]( [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [DONATE]( [WNYC Politics Brief] MTA budget crunch could lead to further disrepair on NYC transit, watchdog warns Plus: MTA wants a man who allegedly attacked a transit worker banned for 3 years. Subway stations are extremely hot right now. And Hoboken marks 4 years without a traffic death. Sponsor Message[Ad: NYC Means Business. Click here to find options to help you shop your city.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [a train crew on a subway track] Marc A. Hermann/MTA [A new report from a prominent fiscal watchdog]( warns that if the MTA doesn't finish crucial infrastructure upgrades by the end of 2024, service could begin to suffer for the agency already struggling to bring back riders. "If there is deterioration in the subway cars or the buses, if the signals aren’t well-functioning, that can cause delays in service, more crowded trains, longer wait times between trains," said Ana Champeny, the vice president of research at the Citizens Budget Commission, which produced the report. Prior to the pandemic, the MTA had earmarked roughly $53 billion for capital projects to be completed between 2020 and the end of 2024. But the CBC found that about 20% of that financing — or $12 billion — is "at risk or unaffordable" because of the MTA's structural deficit and suppressed ridership due to the persistence of remote work. [The report, which is subtitled, "What to Do When You Can't Do It All,"]( recommended, among other things, that the MTA "continue to improve capital execution to increase capacity," which would include using "partial- or full-line shutdowns to accelerate projects." The authors also stressed the urgency around securing revenue from congestion pricing. The MTA estimates that once the tolls take effect, it'll bring in about $1 billion a year. After the publication of the report, an MTA spokesperson told Gothamist that despite a 13-month pause on construction at the start of the pandemic, it's now on pace to spend $50 billion on capital projects through the end of 2024, adding that "75% of the awarded work is for projects that maintain the system in a state of good repair." [Read more here](. — [Reporting by Michelle Bocanegra]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsor Message [Ad: NYC Means Business. Click here to find options to help you shop your city.] --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- MTA seeks three-year ban on man accused of attacking transit worker [MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber (at podium) at a news conference requesting a judge ban a man accused of assaulting MTA employee Anthony Nelson ] Marc A. Hermann/MTA MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber said this week that [he wants a man who allegedly attacked a subway station cleaner to be banned]( from any of the agency's trains or buses for three years if he's convicted, which would make the suspect the first person to ever face such a ban. According to the NYPD and MTA, 35-year-old Anthony Nelson was working inside the Pelham Bay Park 6 train station in the Bronx earlier this month when he was approached by a customer about a man harassing people outside the station. When he went outside to assess the situation, a man later identified as 49-year-old Alexander Wright approached Nelson, punched him in the head, and then threw him on the ground. In 2020, Albany created a rule giving judges the ability to prohibit people who are convicted of assaulting transit workers or committing sex crimes within the MTA system from entering for up to three years. But the New York Post [reported]( earlier this year that city judges had yet to apply the new law. It's unclear how this ban would be enforced, and the MTA did not answer an email requesting clarification. [Read more here](. — [Reporting by Catalina Gonella]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- Here's what else is happening Subway stations aren't just sweltering because there's no A/C, they're hot because subway car A/C units blow extra hot air in the tunnels. Certain stations, including Grand Central Terminal and the newer stops on the 2nd Avenue line, have quasi-A/C systems that can drop the temperature by about 8 degrees. But bringing this to every underground station in the system would cost $4.8 billion. ([The New York Times]( There's a new bill in the state Senate that would require all new cars registered in New York to have on-board speed-limiting technology by 2024. The bill, which also calls for limits on trucks and SUVs over 3,000 pounds, may not go very far, since auto safety standards are generally dictated by the federal government, not state laws. ([Streetsblog]( That said, speed limiting technology is in use here — New York City is testing it out on 50 vehicles in the municipal fleet. As part of a pilot program designed to make traffic slower and safer, 50 city vehicles, ranging from sedans to pick-up trucks, have so-called speed governors that keep the engines from exceeding the speed limit on any given roadway. ([CityLab]( Taxi and app-based drivers really want congestion pricing exemptions. Drivers rallied yesterday outside Gov. Kathy Hochul's Manhattan office, but the MTA, which will control the tolls, argued that Uber and Lyft drivers ought to be charged since they've been one of the main causes of congestion in the first place. ([AM New York]( Thanks to a series of "quick implementation, high impact" tweaks, Hoboken has managed to go four years with zero traffic deaths. A main feature of Hoboken's street design is the use of little plastic barriers that prevent cars from parking at the edge of an intersection, which enables other drivers to see oncoming traffic without having to pull into a crosswalk and potentially kill a pedestrian. ([NPR]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- And Finally: A mash-up we didn't see coming [a video of the NYC Ferry set to music]( [@caseyns/Twitter]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 🚆 --------------------------------------------------------------- [Ad: NYC Means Business. Click here to find options to help you shop your city.]( Sponsor Message Support WNYC + Gothamist Make a donation to support local, independent journalism. 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