Editorial
The crumbling M.T.A.
Two reports released by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and City Comptroller
Scott Stringer this week highlight the woeful conditions that straphangers
who rely on subways and commuter rail lines can attest to daily.
And while it’s easy to see the neglect and incompetence, it seems much harder
to fi nd a way to fi x the damage.
DiNapoli announced the results of a study that revealed something that seems
obvious by now: Most New York City subway stations are crumbling.
The run-down components cited in the study range from from platform edges
to ventilators, both of which are quite obviously key to rider safety.
Broken platform edges increase the risk of potentially tragic slips and falls, and
malfunctioning ventilators are both short- and long-term health hazards for anyone
who sets foot on an underground subway station platform.
The second half of this one-two transit punch came from Stringer’s letter to
Long Island Rail Road President Phil Eng, criticizing the commuter rail line for
its own station problems, namely a lack of accessibility.
For example, just fi ve Long Island Rail Road stations in all of Brooklyn and
Queens meet federal A.D.A. (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance. And
yet, the LIRR has either dragged its feet on — or scrapped altogether — projects
designed to bring the stops up to code.
The portrait of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2019 as painted in
the reports is far from fl attering.
Politicians have been quick to condemn the M.T.A. and promise reform and
“transformation” to make everything better. We’ve heard this before, and the end
result has always equated to reshuffl ing deck chairs on the Titanic.
City and state leaders should streamline the authority’s overhead and empower
it (fi nancially and politically) with the means to get things done — and then, do
them.
We don’t need another Robert Moses — an all-powerful master builder who
treated the public with contempt — but rather leaders who can at least get the
M.T.A. and the riders it serves out of this mess.
Enough talking about it. Let’s get the M.T.A. moving toward progress again.
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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