News from
MTA pulls emergency brake on all major
projects as financial woes mount
BY JOSE MARTINEZ
THE CITY
Billions of dollars in planned upgrades
to the transit system — including
modernized signals, new subway
cars and elevators at dozens of stations —
will be frozen indefi nitely due to fi nancial
fallout from the pandemic, THE CITY has
learned.
MTA offi cials are expected to reveal
Wednesday that a 60-day hold on “capital
projects” that was announced in March
will remain in place while the cashstrapped
state transit agency tries to secure
another $3.9 billion in emergency federal
funding.
“We can’t go back to the bad old days
of sacrifi cing capital funding for operating
expenses,” Andrei Berman, an MTA
spokesperson, told THE CITY. “All of these
projects are necessary for ensuring that
New Yorkers have a modernized transit
system and we will continue fi ghting in
Washington to get the funding we need to
move forward.”
The gloomy fi nancial outlook will be
delivered at an MTA board meeting, days
after Chairperson Patrick Foye said the
agency could be on the brink of a “fi nancial
calamity” by July without another round of
federal relief.
“Riders should be alarmed,” said Ben
Fried of TransitCenter, an advocacy and
research organization. “If the MTA doesn’t
receive more assistance, the reliability and
accessibility upgrades New Yorkers are
counting on will be in jeopardy and even
keeping the system in good working condition
will be diffi cult.”
Major Projects Snagged
The damage ranges from the enormous
gap in the MTA’s operating budget to projects
from the $30 billion 2015-2019 capital
program that were scheduled to start this
year. Among them are:
• Signal modernization along the A/C/E
subway lines
• Elevator installations at more than a
dozen subway stations to bring them into
compliance with the Americans With Disabilities
Act
• Structural repairs along the No. 7 line,
including renovation at seven stops
The hold also includes the MTA’s entire
$51 billion 2020-2024 capital program.
While not yet funded, the largest capital
An out-of-service elevator at the 207th Street stop on the A, seen on Dec. 4, 2019. The contract for its replacement has
been put on hold.
plan in agency history laid out an ambitious
roadmap.
It includes resignaling stretches of six
subway lines, replacing thousands of old
subway cars and buses, and installing
elevators or ramps at 66 subway stations
not currently accessible to riders with
disabilities.
“When the system comes back, the MTA
cannot throw out the issue of accessibility
— that’s essential,” said Joseph Rappaport,
executive director of the Brooklyn Center
for the Independence of the Disabled. “The
MTA has to take an approach that doesn’t
repeat the sins of the past when it comes
to accessibility.”
Rappaport’s group is part of a coalition
of local organizations that have a federal
class action discrimination lawsuit pending
against the MTA for lack of ADA
compliance.
Mass transit advocates said an extended
shutdown to planned capital improvements
would deal another strong blow to the city’s
emergence from the coronavirus crisis.
“A well-functioning mass transit system
is essential to the recovery of New York,”
said Rachael Fauss, a policy analyst with
Reinvent Albany, a watchdog group.
“Beyond the billions needed in operating
aid, riders also deserve a system that actually
works, with new signals, trains, buses
and other critical repairs being made.”
‘On Life Support’
The MTA has already been stung by the
loss of revenue from daily ridership that,
at the peak of the pandemic, fell by more
than 90% on the subway and commuter
railroads — leaving its fi nances “on life
support,” according to Bob Foran, the
agency’s chief fi nancial offi cer.
With the city easing into Phase 2 of its
reopening, subway and bus ridership are
inching up to about two million commutes
a day, even as trains remain out of service
from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. daily for a systemwide
cleaning.
As revenue from ridership began to
crumble in March because of the state’s
stay-at-home restrictions, the MTA also had
to contend with projects whose timelines
were pushed back by coronavirus-driven
workforce shortages and factory shutdowns
around the country and world.
According to MTA records, those
included:
• The arrival of new electric buses and
PHOTO: JOSE MARTINEZ/THE CITY
chargers purchased from New Flyer, whose
facilities in upstate New York, Alabama
and Minnesota had worker shortages
• The delivery of new Long Island Rail
Road train cars from Kawasaki’s Yonkers
factory, which temporarily closed during
the pandemic
“Outbreaks interfere with manufacturing
capacity around the globe and delay
acquisition of materials and components,”
Fried said.
Despite the delays, Gov. Andrew Cuomo
earlier this month said the collapse of ridership
in the subway during the pandemic
actually allowed the MTA to accelerate
some projects — including renovations at
the 138th Street-Grand Concourse station
in The Bronx and installing elevators at 11
stations.
But Fauss said other gains will likely be
limited because of the coronavirus crisis.
“COVID-19 is making working on an
already ambitious plan all that much more
diffi cult,” she said.
This story was originally published
on June 23, 2020 by THE CITY, an independent,
nonprofi t news organization
dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that
serves the people of New York.
18 June 25, 2020 Schneps Media