New York City may cut its public transportation services nearly in half, according to MTA Chairman Pat Foye, who testified Tuesday (Aug. 25) before the New York State Legislature at a joint virtual public hearing about budget cuts and service cuts saying the city had failed to receive a $12 billion infusion of federal funding needed to keep the system moving through the end of 2021.
Services are likely to be cut by as much as 40 percent, translating into deep changes in the system, and serious difficulties for commuters in Brooklyn Jewish communities who use the public transportation system to get to and from jobs in the city.
Here are some of the changes the shortfall might bring:
- An eight-minute longer wait for the next train
- A 15-minute longer wait for the next bus
- Personnel cuts, possibly slashing more than 7,200 jobs
- Up to 50 percent cut in service on Metro-North and the LI Railroad
- Possible cuts of up to 850 commuter rail jobs
- Eliminating West of Hudson service in New York
- Possible changes to Access-A-Ride
The MTA is losing $200 million a week, Foye said. “If the Senate doesn’t act, we will have no choice. Draconian measures would be needed, with massive job cuts and service cuts in the weeks and months ahead.” Immediate action must already be taken without $3.9 billion in additional federal funds this year, he added.
Without the money, the MTA said it will also have to implement lane closures, delays in response to incidents, and less frequent maintenance of the system.
“Not even the Great Depression saw a dramatic drop in ridership like the pandemic-induced one,” Foye said.
While all that may be true, it is also true that violent crime on the subways continues to rise, which may add to the drop in ridership, since anyone with any reasonable alternative is likely to be inspired to seize that option first.
Even before the start of the hot summer months, in May, a 33-year-old man was stabbed repeatedly in the Penn Station in Manhattan at around 4 pm. The suspect escaped.
In June, a Yonkers man was arrested on multiple charges that included attempted rape, sex abuse, forcible touching, unlawful imprisonment and assault. He was accused of grabbing a 36-year-old woman as she was trying to transfer to a train at West 72nd Street in Manhattan. Less than two hours later, he also tried to rape a woman after punching her on an F train in Brooklyn. A conductor intervened but needless to say, the victims did not escape unscathed.
Also in June, a man was shot and seriously injured by a gunman on a Number 2 and 5 subway platform in the Bronx just after 6:30 am. The suspect fled.
In July, a flasher on a subway in Harlem turned violent when he was confronted by his victim’s male friend. Police said the 40-year-old woman who was flashed by a man on the Number 3 northbound subway on the afternoon of July 12th told her male friend when she got off the train in Harlem. The friend confronted the flasher, who then pulled a knife and stabbed the woman’s defender twice before fleeing the scene.
Also in July, a man pushed a 68-year-old woman on to the tracks at 14th Street / 6th Avenue Station. The woman was standing on the Brooklyn-bound L train platform at the station at two o’clock in the afternoon. The attacker just walked straight up to her and shoved her, “kicking and stomping her,” according to the woman’s daughter who spoke with ABC 7 Eyewitness News, and then fled. The woman fell to the platform and rolled on to the track bed. She was left with five broken bones in her back. Two bystanders helped her get off the tracks and saved her life.
All summer long, a suspect has been smashing the windows on subway cars across the city. Since early May, 63 MTA subway cars have been vandalized, according to ABC News. More than 200 glass windows on the trains so far are damaged. NYPD says the incidents have occurred on the Number 2, 3, and 7 lines in the Bronx and Queens. The man is carrying a hammer.
It’s not clear where the problem lies — whether there is a lack of resources, knowledge, ability or personnel — or simply a plain lack of motivation to get the job done correctly. But the bottom line remains: New York City’s subways are not safe, and it leads many to question why it makes sense to throw good money after bad.