The subways on the brink
As the Transit Authority tries to figure out who or what threw the emergency brake, derailing an A train and injuring dozens in Harlem Tuesday morning, this much we do know: The subways are in crisis. Chronically late trains, breakdowns, failing signal systems and now, a dangerous derailment. An elemental public service is in dire need of repair. All fix-it projects need checklists. Here’s ours. l Repair begins with attention from those in charge, starting with Gov. Cuomo. Cuomo has accepted this responsibility, and we share his confidence in Joe Lhota, who returns as MTA chairman.
Cuomo says he needs more votes on the MTA board to formalize the control everyone already knows he has. Fine with us, but he had better not be waiting around for that.
l Lhota, who plans to keep his paid day-job and be a big-picture overseer of the MTA, had better hurry in finding a crackerjack executive director and a new permanent president of the city’s transit authority, responsible for overseeing the subways day to day. You can’t do a job this big with a volunteer chairman and interim staffers.
l Then he and his teams need a plan — yep, a clear, public plan laying out what’s needed to bring the trains and basic infrastructure, from tracks to ties to signals to interlockings, back to everyday working order.
List every piece of the puzzle that needs an overhaul. Put Plan A and Plan B fixes, where appropriate. Include delivery timetables. Tell the straphanging public how much it will all cost.
l This must not be just a budget-growing exercise. Include a strategy to squeeze efficiencies out of existing revenue streams and personnel.
l With a plan the public can see, ratified by the governor and MTA brass, then comes the hunt for cash. This cannot be a bratty fight about who puts in more, the state or the city.
We, the people of the city and the suburbs who rely on the MTA, pay almost all the taxes, all the fares and all the tolls regardless. And we, the people of the city and the suburbs who rely on the MTA, are going to have to pony up still more.
Do it through a new tax, or an existing tax, or by committing other pots of cash. Dedicate the money necessary to do the job, once the job is detailed.
The subway is not full-on collapsing, not yet. The underground nightmare of decades ago — constant track fires, ancient rolling stock and graffiti covering every surface — this is not. But if the present downward spiral continues, who knows.
This is basic stuff, not sexy. Cuomo was all over the opening of the Second Ave. subway last winter; de Blasio was there for ribbon cutting of the cityfunded extension of the No. 7 to the Far West Side.
New signals and rebuilt interlockings don’t present good photo ops. But they keep the railroad running.
Speaking of ribbon-cuttings, Lhota had to skip the re-opening of the Sandy-damaged South Ferry No. 1 train terminal Tuesday.
Instead, he instead was at the scene of the derailment uptown. Fitting.