'State of MTA' Addresses Need for Growth

Discussing the need to mitigate street traffic and build up the subway system, Elliot Sander, executive director and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, gave the first annual “State of the MTA” address Monday morning at the Cooper Union.

Sander underscored the need for congestion pricing and plans for a Second Avenue subway line, and proposed service upgrades on 11 subway lines in all five boroughs, including the 1 and C, which run through Morningside Heights and West Harlem.

Sander emphasized the progress the MTA has made since the “fiscal crisis” of the 1960s, when track fires were common, service was inconsistent, and stations and cars alike were covered in graffiti. According to Sander, trains derailed on average every 18 days, and 325 subway runs were cancelled daily.

“It wasn’t just intimidating—it was scary,” one MTA official said.

The MTA was created in 1968 to revive the failing system, and over time the city purchased thousands of new cars, renovated 200 stations, and completed 700 miles of “renewed” track. According to Sander, trains now last 40 times longer between breakdowns than they did four decades ago, and crime in the transit system has fallen dramatically.

There are also 10,000 new buses on the roads, including “the largest fleet of clean-fuel buses in the world,” MTA chairman H. Dale Hemmerdinger said in a video shown at the beginning of the presentation. Sander said security has also been strengthened, with an increase from 50 to 1,000 police patrols each day.

But despite all the talk about progress, Hemmerdinger acknowledged the need to create concrete plans for further improvement.

“It is important to celebrate our achievements,” he said, “but more important to communicate with you [riders] about the challenges ahead and our vision for the future.”

Recent proposals include increasing evening service on the 1, E, and F lines, extending some C trains from eight to 10 cars long, and more frequent service on 16 different bus routes.

These initiatives would be funded largely by revenue from congestion pricing, which would require cars entering the city below 60th Street to pay an $8 fee. The New York Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission presented its plan last month, and it will go to the City Council for approval.

Sander also mentioned possible collaborations with surrounding train lines like the Long Island Railroad, Metro-North Railroad, and New Jersey Transit to, among other things, allow New Yorkers to travel directly from the city to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. on football weekends.

He articulated several main priorities, which include increasing frequency of service, reducing overcrowding, and completing the Second Ave. subway, which would “redistribute more than 200,000 riders, relieving crowding on the Lexington Ave. [4, 5, and 6] lines,” but is not set to open until 2015. The Second Ave. line would also allow easier travel from Manhattan’s east side to West Harlem.

Sander proposed adding more cars to trains running on routes with particularly heavy ridership, as may be done with the C line, and drawing on existing express tracks not currently in use—such as the middle track in the 116th Street station—to accommodate new express service.

Interestingly, Sander did not mention the MTA’s controversial fare hike, which took effect Sunday, even in passing. Nor did he discuss at length the financial difficulties that led to its implementation. He presented congestion pricing not as a necessity in order to keep the MTA financially solvent, but rather as a prerequisite for system “enhancements.”

Sander depicted New York’s transit system as declining in quality in comparison to its counterparts in other cities, such as London and Shanghai.

“In just five years, Shanghai’s subway system will be as extensive as in New York,” Sander said. “China spends nine percent of its gross domestic product on infrastructure. ... Meanwhile, the U.S. spends less than one percent. That is unacceptable.”

Financial difficulties cannot be an excuse to abandon new initiatives, Sander said, reminding the audience that the Empire State Building was constructed during the Great Depression.

“Even as we enter difficult economic times, we must continue to invest,” he said. “We cannot settle for a second-rate transportation network.”

The MTA’s latest five-year capital plan will cost $29.5 billion.

“It’s a lot of money,” Sander said, “But we have—and I’m sure you’ll agree—no choice. We can take a business-as-usual approach to how we run the MTA ... Or we can set our sights higher—complete the projects underway and press on to give the region the network of mobility it needs to be competitive with its global peers.”

maggie.astor@columbiaspectator.com