2017–2021 New York City transit crisis
In July 2017, MTA chairman Joe Lhota created a multifaceted "Subway Action Plan" that consisted of short- and long-term solutions.
[4] A day later, the MTA officially announced the Genius Transit Challenge, where contestants could submit ideas to improve signals, communications infrastructure, or rolling stock.
[12] On July 21, the second set of wheels on a southbound Q train jumped the track near Brighton Beach, constituting the system's second derailment within a month.
[14][15] On November 18, 2017, The New York Times published its investigation into the crisis, with over 1,000 readers having submitted stories about the effects of the past year's subway delays.
It found that politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties, at the mayoral and gubernatorial levels, had gradually removed $1.5 billion of MTA funding.
Other actions by city and state politicians, according to the Times, included overspending; overpaying unions and interest groups; advertising superficial improvement projects while ignoring more important infrastructure issues; and agreeing to high-interest loans in order to make up the deficit from the governmental reductions in funding.
[18] The transit crisis was influenced partly by modifications to New York City Subway signals and work-zone policies that required trains to reduce their speeds.
[26]: 26 The average speeds of New York City buses were found to be 7 to 8 miles per hour (11 to 13 km/h),[25] the slowest of any major bus system nationwide.
[16] In August 2017, The New York Times released an article about how the routes that serve the Lexington Avenue Line (the 4, 5, 6, and <6> trains) failed to meet its schedule count during weekday rush hours when demand is at its highest.
[35] In January 2018, average weekday on-time performance had dropped from 65% to 58.1%, and there were more than 76,000 delayed trains, which reached their terminus at least five minutes later than what was listed on the timetable.
[51] The $836 million first phase, to be effective immediately, focused on "stabilization"[52][53] and consisted of five categories: Signal and Track Maintenance, Car Reliability, System Safety and Cleanliness, Customer Communication, and Critical Management Group.
[58] Additionally, officials started piloting a new fare system compatible with the LIRR and Metro-North's eTix electronic tickets,[59] and several unspecified L train cars were being retrofitted with seats that folded up during rush hours.
[64] Mayor de Blasio, who initially opposed the congestion pricing plan, suggested a counter-proposal to raise taxes for the city's wealthiest residents.
[80] On May 23, 2017, Governor Cuomo officially announced the Genius Transit Challenge, where contestants could submit ideas to improve signals, communications infrastructure, or rolling stock.
The winner of each of the three challenges was to receive a million dollars and have their idea implemented systemwide; MTA employees were outright prohibited from applying.
[88]: 29 In order to keep trains moving, New York City Transit started evaluating twenty places where signal timers affect service the most.
[93][94][95] The following day, Andy Byford held the first town hall for the Fast Forward plan at York College in Jamaica, Queens.
[96][97] In internal emails released the same month, the MTA indicated that as a result of budget cuts, some subway staffing and car-cleaning jobs might be eliminated.
[99] The transit advocacy group Riders Alliance stated that in August 2018, there was only one weekday where the subway system did not experience delays due to signal or equipment malfunctions.
[99] Byford also stated that, thus far, the MTA had cleaned 285 miles (459 km) of track, fixed 1,300 signals, and modified 1,600 subway cars as part of the Fast Forward plan.
[111] In a 60 Minutes television segment about the state of the subway, published on October 21, it was mentioned that the increasing delays had led to dissatisfied customers who, in some cases, had physically assaulted conductors.
In the segment, Byford described how communications-based train control (CBTC) implementation was the key part of his Fast Forward plan, and that as a result of an investment of $800 million in emergency funds, critical maintenance of the subway was being carried out.
[112] By December 2018, the MTA had identified 130 locations in the subway system where the speed limit could be increased (or in some cases, doubled),[113][114] as well as 267 faulty timer signals that needed to be fixed.
[119][120] In response, Byford stated that the MTA was studying ways to physically prevent fare evaders from jumping over subway turnstiles, or entering the rear doors of buses where they did not need to pay.
[132] In February 2019, Cuomo and de Blasio jointly announced a plan that outlined ten steps to fix MTA operations.
[139][140][141] The congestion pricing plan was supposed to be implemented in June 2024 but was delayed by Cuomo's successor, Kathy Hochul,[142] who postponed it to January 2025.
[143] As part of state legislation passed in April 2019, the MTA was supposed to create a plan to reduce costs by the end of June.
[188][189] Although officials stated that only one percent of subway ridership occurred at night, trains continued to run overnight, leading to complaints that essential workers were being unnecessarily inconvenienced.
[194][195] Two weeks later, MTA Chairman Pat Foye reported that roughly 95 percent of mass transit riders were adhering to wearing face masks in accordance with state executive order No.
[214][215] The following month, March 2021, state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli published a report showing that the subway was seeing 2 million daily riders on weekdays.
