Wild idea: End 24/7 subway
IN THE CITY that never sleeps, the subway system could use some shuteye, experts proposed in a report released Thursday.
A radical idea from the decidedly not radical Regional Plan Association suggested shutting down overnight subway service from Monday to Thursday.
The suspension of subways — which would be replaced by buses from 12:30 a.m. to 5 a.m. — would allow the system to become reliable in 15 years, said Tom Wright, president of the nonprofit group.
“We think that the days of the 24/7 subway system in New York are coming to an end,” Wright said of the controversial idea.
About 85,000 straphangers use overnight subway service — which amounts to a measly 1.5% of the 5.7 million daily subway riders. Wright said keeping the system running just to accommodate a small number of riders “doesn’t make sense.”
“The cost of that, not just in terms of dollars, but in terms of performance of the system the other 20 hours of the day, is no longer worth it,” he said.
Riders and transit experts gave the idea a Bronx cheer.
“That’s a horrible idea because I work overnight sometimes. New York City is a city that’s 24 hours,” said Saud Alshaikh, 26, a pharmacist on the Upper West Side.
Mitchell Moss, director of the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, panned the “elitist” proposal.
“The (Regional Plan Association) board members and officers need to take the subway after midnight and see that they’re jammed with working New Yorkers, not the leisure classes who attend cocktail parties and galas,” Moss said.
Among the association’s 60 other ideas for the metropolitan region:
Raise money through new taxes and tolls, fees on vehicle miles traveled, charging drivers to enter Manhattan’s business center and a capand-trade program for emissions.
Create an authority tasked with subway modernization.
Build a regional rail network for trains to flow unimpeded through the tristate area.
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota did not directly address the overnight subway shutdown idea, but he said conversations on how to fix and modernize the system are worth having.
“While we don’t need to create a new bureaucratic structure, we agree that securing a dedicated revenue source — preferably one that also battles congestion — is essential,” he said.