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Engineering Proposal

NYC SUBWAY

Abstract

Throughout the years the MTA subways has suffered from delays, budget cuts, aging signals, and precarious maintenance of the stations and cars. Using different research methods, there will be a proposed strategy to approach the problems the NYC Subways are facing.                                               

Summary

On October 27, 1904, the first New York City subway opened. This was a nine-mile subway line inaugurated with the purpose of solving congestion problems at the time (Mta info). As we know, this was not the case as New York City grew so did the congestion in the city.

Today the New York City Subway is one of the biggest subway systems around the world. Said system has over 665 mainline track miles and 472 stations (Pham, 2017), a lot of these stations were built back in 1940. The system had one of the biggest daily ridership of any subway system around the world, before COVID-19.

On June 29, 2017 Governor Andrew Cuomo declared the New York City Subways on a state of emergency. For too many years the New York City Subway has been forgotten and neglected by authorities. The budget for the subway has had constant cuts creating a decline for the service. For long, New Yorkers have been aware of these issues, but the authorities, the Mayor and governor, turned a blind eye to these issues. The list of reasons why the subway had to be declared in emergency state is extensive. Throughout the years the MTA subways has suffered from delays, budget cuts, aging signals, and precarious maintenance of the stations and cars. The proposed review will discuss the problem the system is facing financially and systematically. Thus, proposing a reform to find a solution to the issues being faced by the MTA Subway. The proposed reform will be formulated from researching other subway systems around the world.

Statement of the Problem

The MTA has been suffering the negligence of authorities for decades now. This first started on Oct 21, 1994 when Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said he would cut $100 million form the transit budget in order to close the $1Billion budget gap (The New York Times, 2018). This cut then became one of the main reasons of the 1970’s subway system failure. Around this time there was an increase in ridership of the subway, but due to the budget cuts there were not enough funds to keep up with the maintenance of the trains. In order to help close the budge deficit. But this was only the beginning of what seems an endless circle. After this initial budget cut came the Bond Issuance Fees, 2008 Wall street Crash, Hurricane Sandy, and reckless actions of politicians. These issues snowballed until the Subway System was declared in a State of Emergency in 2017.

The years of deterioration of the subway made the system and the structure collapse. During the year of 2017, the monthly delays increased to around 70,000, entire stations were losing power, as was the case with the Seventh Ave. Station, there was flooding throughout some stations (Plitt, 2017). It was clear that for too long the system had been failed by the corresponding authorities.

Cuomo declared the Subway System in a State of Emergency. Along with this announcement he added an additional $1Billion in funding for the MTA.

It has been three years since the MTA Subway System was declared in a state of emergency and although there have been improvements, the MTA once again faces new economic challenges. The system is in desperate need of signaling system replacements, maintenance clean ups, amongst other issues. The MTA needs a reform to change the way it operates. The current system has been failing for years, with a reform the MTA can learn from their mistakes and from learn from successful subway systems around the world to keep up with the transportation demand in the city that never sleeps.

Introduction

It has become evident that the subway system is a vital part of New York City, it has become part of NYC’s identity. However, throughout the years there has been a clear decay of the NYC Subway, it is clear that the system needs immense change. On June 2017, the New York City Subway was declared in a state of emergency by Governor Andrew Cuomo (Plitt and Rosenberg, 2017). During this year, the number of delays increased to 70,000, there were station floods, parts of the station ceilings were falling, there was a power outage, and many more incidents that showed New Yorkers and the authorities that the subway system the MTA’s failure to keep up with the growth of ridership throughout the years. New Yorkers need a reliable subway system that is safe, clean, and timely.

Alongside with the announcement, Governor Cuomo announced that there will be a $1Billion budget for the betterment of the MTA. With this budget, the ex-president of the MTA, Andy Byford, established a plan to modernize the New York City Transit (Fast Forward). Some of the goals that this plan had in the short term for the betterment of the MTA were:

  • State-of-the-art signal system on 5 lines, including signals, modernized interlockings, and additional power where needed, benefiting 3 million daily riders. This includes work on major portions of the A C E 4 5 6 F M R and G lines.
  • More than 50 new stations made accessible (so subway riders are never more than 2 stops away from an accessible station).
  • State-of-good-repair work at more than 150 stations
  • Over 650 new subway cars.
  • Over 1,200 CBTC-modified cars.

This plan seemed to be very promising. However, a lot has changed since the plan was announced.

Finances

Andy Byford has resigned from his position as president of the MTA, there was a pandemic outbreak, the MTA now faces a financial uncertainty. The seventy-page Fast Forward Plan report established by the MTA authorities talked about modernizing the New York City Transit System and it seemed very impressive. However, the plan seemed to ignore the financial crisis that the MTA has been facing for years.

Currently the MTA is facing a $44.8 million debt; it is expected that the budget deficit will increase by $15.9 billion by the year 2024 (Kabak, 2020). This will only worsen the MTA’s current situation. In order to understand the current situation, we must look at the past. The century old system did not accumulate all that debt over night. This debt is the result of bad politics. In 1994, Mayor Giuliani decided to cut the MTA’s budget by $100 million, in addition he decided that the city’s contribution to the MTA would be reduced (Rosenthal, 2017). An example of a big monetary decision that negatively affected the MTA’s budget deficit is the costly undertaking politicians. A clear example of this is the remaking of the Fulton Street Station. The original budget for this project was $750 million, but the project surpassed the budget to a total of $1.4 billion. This overpriced construction was forced on by Sheldon Silver who at the time was an Assembly speaking and said station was in his district (Rosenthal, 2017). Thus, he could claim this project as his. The Fulton Street Station it is unarguably a beautiful station, but all that money could’ve have been spent on fixing the real issue of the subway system instead. Another example of this is when Governor Cuomo spent $1 billion on “upgrading” the subway stations which was spent on countdown clocks, enhanced lighting, and signs. It is almost ironic that such a big amount of money would be spent on countdown clocks that would only show the constant delays of the subways. There are countless occasions where politicians have taken decisions on the citizen’s system to their benefit. It is clear that politicians have taken advantage of their positions and have abused the MTA to get publicity. This needs to change if the MTA wants to fulfill the huge demand of the subway system to New Yorkers.

According to the MTA Operating Budget, the revenue of the system comes from the public followed by toll revenue, taxes, and only 7% comes from state and local subsidies. The MTA is far from being profitable which leads it to a constant struggle to make ends meet.

The New York Subway system needs to take action in order to survive this financial crisis. MTA authorities should start looking around to other successful transit systems to learn from them. An example of this is the Mass Transit Railway Corporation in Hong Kong. It was reported that in the year 2018 they had a net profit of nearly $2 billion (Keegan, 2019).  The way they do this is by being property developer. The MTR runs shopping malls and retail stores inside the stations. The system’s real state holdings allow them to have a big margin of profit. A lot of the profit money is invested back into the system to integrate artificial intelligence in their transit system.

Another transit system which the MTA should learn a lot from is the Tokyo’s Subway System. In Tokyo, Japan this system is privately run. This privately run system is one of the top transit systems in the world. This system is extremely profitable (Smith, 2011). In 1987, the Japanese government decided that the system would do much better if it was privately run. This indeed turned to be true and example of how responsible government decisions can hep the citizens. The New York State government needs to admit to their faults and follow the steps of Tokyo’s Metro System. In addition, to privatization the MTA authorities need to consider the decision of responsibly increasing the fares without taking advantage of the everyday citizen.

Delays and Safety

One of the biggest problems that the MTA has been facing is the constant delays. These delays are the mere result of old signaling systems. Currently the NYC Subway uses old technology as their signaling system this system is known as the Fixed-Block System. This system has been proved to be inefficient and does not allow the subways to run at full capacity. The current system does not allow the operators know where exactly each subway cart is preventing them from letting other subways to go. This signal system dates back to the 1930’s. A promising solution to this problem is the Communication Based Train Control (CBTC). This system allows the subway cars to run closer to each other because it uses a moving block system. This system allows the operators to know the exact speed, position, and direction of each subway car (MTAinfo, 2017). This means that more trains can run making the system run at full capacity. This system has proven to be successful in the train line L and 7. These lines had an 80% on time performance in 2018.

Although the MTA is working on implementing new technology to improve the reliability of the subway it still has a lot of work ahead. An admirable transit system is the Tokyo Metro transit system which keeps a good on time performance. The Tokyo Metro is responsible for transporting 8 million people daily (VanDer, 2019). To achieve this success, they have implemented methods. One of them is by encouraging people to change their behavior in a sense that unless necessary to not ride the subway during rush hours. This campaign let’s people earn points and save money (VanDer, 2019). Regardless of where they are from people will always want to save money. In New York, overcrowding is a huge problem during rush hours. Encouraging New Yorkers to ride the trains after rush hours can be an idea that would greatly benefit the overcrowding subway problem. In addition to this the Tokyo Metro has safety doors called “Home Doors” each door of the train has a QR code which is read by an overhead QR reader and the doors open when the door shows up at the right spot (Life Where I’m From, 2020). It is kwon that the New York Subways are often delayed by people trying to jump or accidentally fall into the tracks. By adding door to the train stations this would not only prevent delays, but it would add safety to the riders.

Conclusion

The MTA has a long way to go. They are currently in a uncomfortable situation where due to their financial crisis they may have to cut up to 40% of their services. The subway system allows millions of people to go to work, school, and travel the city every day. The New York City Subway is a vital part of New York and it needs to be treated as such. Authorities cannot keep jeopardizing the future of the New York transit System. It has become evident that their past methods to save the system have failed. The system was declared in state of emergency yet it still not being treated as a system that is in a state of emergency. New Yorkers deserve top transit system. In order to provide this, authorities need to look around and look at transit system that are a success. These systems are systems that are reliable and safe to their riders. These features are seen in systems such as the Hong Kong’s Subway System being one of the most profitable systems in the world. The Tokyo Metro is a great system which has been shown to be reliable and safe. In the 1970’s the MTA recovered from a crisis, they can recover from this crisis too if they take the right steps.

References

Fast Forward, fastforward.mta.info/.

Jaffe, Eric. “The Secret to Tokyo’s Rail Success.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 18 May 2012, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-05-18/the-secret-to-tokyo-s-rail-success.

Plitt, Amy, and Zoe Rosenberg. “MTA WTF: A Visual Timeline of the Subway’s Epic 2017 Meltdown.” Curbed NY, Curbed NY, 17 July 2017, ny.curbed.com/2017/6/14/15801694/mta-nyc-subway-delays-twitter.

How Tokyo’s Subway Keeps On-time, Clean, and Safe https://youtu.be/ZT6H_XMDm7s  

The New York Times. “M.T.A. Delays: How Did the Subway Get So Bad?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/nyregion/mta-train-delays.html.

Keegan, Matthew. “How Public Transport Actually Turns a Profit in Hong Kong.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Mar. 2019, www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/mar/19/how-public-transport-actually-turns-a-profit-in-hong-kong.

List, Bobbie van der. “How the Tokyo Metro Handles Rush Hour to Operate On Time.” Metro Magazine, 6 Nov. 2019, www.metro-magazine.com/10007392/how-the-tokyo-metro-handles-rush-hour-to-operate-on-time.

“MTA Operating Budget Basics.” MTA, new.mta.info/budget/MTA-operating-budget-basics.

Smith, Stephen. “Why Tokyo’s Privately Owned Rail Systems Work So Well.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 31 Oct. 2011, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-31/why-tokyo-s-privately-owned-rail-systems-work-so-well.