Without Action From Cuomo, Subways Doomed to Endless State of Disrepair
That "surplus" ought to be paying back
years and years of deferred state responsibilities.
Like his toll cuts, Cuomo's planned tax cuts will hurt New Yorkers who depend on transit.
All told, the city faces a $34 billion gap between basic repairs and maintenance and the amount of money available over the next five years. Surprisingly, a large chunk of this funding gap is attributable to New York's subway system, which has a $10.5 billion backlog of needed maintenance and repair. Thirty-seven percent of subway signals have exceeded their 50-year useful life, and 26 percent are over 70 years old. Signal upgrades are essential because modern signals dramatically increase the number of trains that can run in an hour. When the L train's system was upgraded, the MTA increased the number of rush hour trains from 15 to 26. Subway stations have gotten to such a state of disrepair, says the report, that a former MTA spokesman confesses, "The MTA has basically conceded that you will never get to a state of good repair… It's simply not possible." Under current funding levels, at least. Funding the subways isn't the city's responsibility. The MTA is under the control of the governor, who appoints the authority's president and nominates its board members. But the governor has largely ignored the MTA's needs. Instead, Cuomo threatens to take $40 million in dedicated revenues from the MTA in the next budget.
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