SUBWAY RATS!
MTA bigs barely take trains they’ve ruined ... and they get to ride the rails for FREE!
THE CITY’S BELEAGUERED straphangers are forced to squeeze into overpacked subway cars, endure delay after delay and watch helplessly as their stations are shuttered for months at a time.
But few MTA executives and board members can relate to their soul-crushing commutes.
Records of MetroCard swipes show that some agency brass rarely ride the subway.
A Daily News analysis found that two transit honchos swiped their free MTA-issued MetroCards only once between Jan. 1, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2016. Another used it only twice during that two-year window.
Nine used their cards between 12 and 85 times during that period.
Five others swiped their cards an average of once per week during that time frame — far less than a commuting straphanger who typically uses the subway at least 10 times a week.
But the MTA refuses to identify exactly which executives or board members used their MetroCards so rarely.
A Freedom of Information Law request filed six months ago sought the dates, times and locations that its seven top executives used their MetroCards.
The requested executives included Thomas Prendergast, the MTA’s chairman and CEO who retired in January, and his replacement, interim executive director Veronique Hakim.
The FOIL request also sought the same information on 19 board members.
In its June 22 response to the request, the MTA provided the frequency of use for the MetroCards connected to those 26 people. But the agency refused to say which MetroCard belonged to which person, citing a state law allowing them to withhold information that “if disclosed could endanger the life or safety of any person.”
The MTA also wouldn’t comment for this story.
Michael Sciaraffo, who was stuck earlier this month on a sweltering F train that lost power for nearly an hour, said the MTA owes it to the public to identify the executives and board members.
He also said that the low number of swipes shows that the higher-ups at the agency are out of touch with regular riders.
“If you stay up in the ivy tower and you don’t go down into the tunnels, you will not know the daily experiences and frustrations that have built up over time,” Sciaraffo, 36, said.
Gene Russianoff, the chief spokesman for the transit advocacy group the Straphangers Campaign, said the MTA should disclose the names because taxpayers foot the bill for those agencyissued cards.
“The public pays for it,” Russianoff said. “They should have the right to know how the money is being used.”
Russianoff said that board members should eyeball the subway system and ride it to stay informed. But he didn’t knock the ones who rarely used their free subway passes.
He said that board members — who get the perk for serving at the agency — have been hammered in the past for using their MetroCards too much.
“You’re damned if you do and damned if your don’t,” Russianoff said.
Board members got free MetroCards and E-ZPasses for life until Gov. David Paterson and thenstate Attorney General Andrew Cuomo cracked down on the privilege in 2008.
As a result, a new policy was enacted that only permitted board members to use the MetroCards for official business. But at a mini-
mum the board members could use their cards to attend the monthly board meeting at the MTA’s headquarters. There were 22 board meetings during the time period The News inquired about.
While the MTA won’t identify the MetroCards connected to each board member and executive, it did say that it found no records for board chairman Fernando Ferrer and two board members, city Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg and hotel union president Peter Ward.
It also had no records for Donald Spero, president of MTA Bridges and Tunnels.
Ferrer, however, told the Daily News that “everybody sees me on the subway” and that he pays for his own MetroCard.
He agreed that he and his fellow members should take the subway.
“I always think it is wise for a board member to be frequent riders and walk in the same shoes as the riding public,” he said.
He said he believed most the executives at the MTA were frequently on the subway.
The Transportation Department said that Trottenberg purchases her own subway pass and frequently rides the rails. As commissioner, she also travels by vehicle and occasionally bikes, the DOT said.
Some of the 26 executives and board members used their subway passes quite frequently during the two-year period.
One swiped their card 782 times, the equivalent of about 7.5 rides a week. Another swiped 716 times. Another used the card 581, or about 5.5 times a week.
Richard Ravitch, who is credited with turning around the MTA while serving as its chairman in the 1980s, said he visited every subway station at one point during his tenure.
He said board members should know everything that is going on in the transit system, but they should also rely on the agency’s executives, engineers and operations staff to stay apprised.
“That doesn’t mean that they have to ride the subway every day,” he said. “That’s silly.”
It’s not silly to Sciaraffo, the stranded straphanger. He said the underground is hell — and MTA bigwigs would only know that if they rode the trains on a regular basis.
He offered to spend the day riding the train with the board, agency executives and Gov. Cuomo.
“They should be on the subway so they can endure the same daily hassles and delays and be exposed to the lack of safety mechanisms that we experience,” he said.