A new report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office identifies key repairs the MTA must make in the coming years to keep riders who rely on public transportation safe.
“Day by day you can see that it is deteriorating, it looks quite damaged. Some parts look quite damaged,” says Denis Hernández, user of the system.
Through a detailed report, DiNapoli’s office highlights the most urgent repair needs within New York’s public transportation system, considered the largest in the entire country.
They focus on the five-year period between 2025 to 2029, when the next MTA capital program will take effect and consists of an investment of 43 billion dollars.
Repairs necessary to optimize service include:
Improve road signs and communications system.
Increase passenger safety, which is one of the critical points of the system.
Update subway cars and the outdated bus fleet.
Intensive maintenance of train and bus yards.
And one of the agency’s biggest priorities is renovating the 110-year-old Grand Central Terminal train shed.
It needs repairs to 100 percent of its structural supports, roof slab, ventilation, air conditioning and drainage systems.
In addition to infrastructure, some users insist that cleanliness and security should be the priority:
“On the N and D trains, which are where many homeless people go, they sleep and urinate inside the cars, they fight inside, they smoke inside the cars and so let’s say that when you go out with children it is a complication” says Anderson González, user of the system.
“I have been living here for 20 years and I see that the transportation always, even about ten years ago they put in new ones. So, in a way, there’s no problem with that. I see that the problem is more in security,” adds Armando Ramírez.
Others reiterate the slowness of the service:
“More transportation, because sometimes it takes more than half an hour, an hour especially the Third Avenue bus,†says Esperanza Zurita, a user of the system.
“They are always very slow on the weekends, so they should improve that part and there should be a little more security because the truth is that it is a little dangerous to walk,†says Valdo Castro, user of the system.
And others are totally skeptical of the announced changes:
“This has never changed since I was little,†says Nelson Castro.
And in accessibility projects, the MTA plans to invest $6.8 billion in its train and bus stations.
2024-02-01 17:28:00
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