Abstract
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is suffering from a financial crisis. This financial crisis has worsen with the ongoing pandemic. This financial crisis has affected the quality of services the MTA is offering.
To: New Yorker’s
From: Jensy Maldonado, Anton Camaj, Luis Ramirez
Subject: New York City Transit System
ENGL 21007
The purpose of this memo is to bring attention to the ongoing issues that the NYC transit system, in particular the subways, has been suffering from for the past few years and the increased congestion of people in the city.
Summary
It has been known for many years that the 120-year-old NYC Transit system, which is run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), has been the main mode of transportation throughout the boroughs for most residents for years (not to mention the over 65 million tourists a year). With such a popular transportation method and city, it should be state of the art, but it is clear that New York’s transit system is stuck in the past and is suffering. The reasons for this is that currently the MTA is not doing well in dealing with fare hikes, delays, and sanitation. This may be because the MTA is facing major debt problems, and on top of that, there are reports showing that there has been mismanagement of the funding. The transit system has been unable to keep up with the growth of the New York City’s population and employing a better system will not only make New York travel more efficient, but can also help the city grow as a whole.
Discussion
What exactly is wrong with the current transportation system? Well to start, NYC has had the highest delay rates in the world with 80% of the subway trains running on time during weekdays; almost every other country’s transit systems have a 90% on time statistic. The delays of the current subway system are caused by a signal system that was built under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency in the 1930’s. This outdated and faulty system prevents the subways from running at the highest efficiency and has still not been modified or upgraded since. The main problem with delays is that people will feel more inclined to use “ride share” services such as “Lyft” or “Uber” to travel instead, which further increases street congestion and decreases the efficiency of travel from point A to B for all New Yorkers. Trains running late mean people running late to work decreasing the total work efficiency of the city. On top of the constant delays that the transit system faces, the infrastructure of many of the subway stations are very inaccessible lacking the essential accessibility to elevators for riders with mobility impairments.
One of the biggest problems that the MTA has suffered from throughout the past 100 years and one that it is currently facing is the constant fare hikes (Pham). The MTA officials have said that the fare hikes are necessary to keep the system running. There have been accusations of mismanagement of the funds within the MTA officials, which has led to a tremendous financial crisis. As of 2018, the MTA was projected to have a one Billion dollar budget deficit by 2022. The MTA was already facing huge debt problems, and the system was not exempt from the current economic crisis that the country is facing. The future of the MTA is being held by a thread that is the decision of the federal government to give the MTA a bailout of $32 billion (Berger). If this bailout is denied to the transit agency, it is said that the NY transit system will suffer severe consequences, including 40 percent cuts to the services, job reductions, and even more fare hikes. In Fig 1.1, we can observe the financial outlook for the coming years of the MTA without the proper funding from the federal government.
Another major problem with the NYC MTA has to do with cleanliness, for far too long the subway’s sanitation has been neglected. It is clear to see from anyone who has used the subway system that random stains, rats, roaches, puddles, and dirt cover most of the Manhattan stations, and trains themselves are barely any better. In train cars it is a common sight to find homeless people sleeping along with all of their belongings in big garbage bags. With society’s over emphasis on social distancing and self-sanitation in order to decrease the spread of Covid during this time, many people don’t even consider public transportation as an option anymore; its image makes people feel as if they are putting themselves in danger for using it. With more budget and more focus on cleaning instead of letting everything pile up, more people would feel inclined to use public transportation, but as it stands the MTA is losing out on a lot of potential money.
Conclusion
The problems listed above are just a few of the many more problems the MTA is facing right now, problems that affect millions of New Yorkers that use the MTA transit system as their main transportation system. The MTA needs to take serious measures in order for the system to not only survive, but to succeed. A suggestion from different transit systems around the world that can help us fix a major delay problem is changing the signaling system to a virtual system. This would bring the system up to speed with the current technology and help trains arrive more closely to scheduled times. In addition, the inaccessible infrastructure can be approached by adding elevators. The poor infrastructure in which the MTA system is currently running on affects millions. “There are many things that the MTA system can learn from other countries that have more successful transit systems” (Sisson). For example, New York is in serious debt problems due to the costly construction cost and could learn a lot from the Madrid transit system, where the construction costs are much lower. In addition, New York has a lot to learn from Tokyo’s efficiency, such as the speed of bullet trains, and Hong Kong’s profitability.
Citations
Berger, Paul. “Mounting Debt Threatens to Derail New York Transit System.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 20 Aug. 2020, www.wsj.com/articles/mounting-debt-threatens-to-derail-new-york-transit-system-11597928401?st=ceopiffvsyrys4r.
Brian. “How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/nyregion/new-york-subway-system-failure-delays.html.
.
“MTA Operating Budget Basics.” MTA, new.mta.info/budget/MTA-operating-budget-basics.
“New York Transit Agency Threatens Draconian Cuts and Fare Hikes.” World Socialist Web Site, www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/31/mtan-a31.html.
Pham, Diane. “All the MTA Fare Hikes of the Last 100 Years.” 6sqft, 23 Mar. 2015, www.6sqft.com/all-the-mta-fare-hikes-over-the-last-100-years-plus-a-video-of-when-it-cost-just-15-cents/.
Sisson, Patrick. “New York City’s Subway Needs Fixing; These 4 Cities Offer Solutions.” Curbed NY, Curbed NY, 19 Sept. 2017, ny.curbed.com/2017/9/19/16335068/nyc-subway-mta-state-of-emergency-solution.
Fitzsimmons, Emma G., and Rebecca Liebson. “Your Subway Was Delayed by 1930s Signals. A Fix Is Finally Coming.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Sept. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/nyregion/nyc-mta-subway-signals.html.
“MTA Press Releases.” MTA, www.mta.info/press-release/nyc-transit/new-full-year-data-shows-subway-hitting-6-year-annual-high-weekday-time-0.
