New York Daily News

What’s the fare, Andy?

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Andy Byford, four months into the job running the Transit Authority, wants to fix all of it. He wants to fix the ailing subways. He wants to fix the buses. And he wants to fix transit for people with disabiliti­es. Good, good and good. The turnaround plan he unveiled Wednesday was properly sweeping.

Yet he has no price tag; that’s TBD in a month, or two, or who knows when. The initial 10-year, $37 billion figure that the MTA board was told Tuesday was quickly papered over. And Chair Joe Lhota has not identified any cash sources.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Promising.

Front and center, Byford calls for dramatical­ly accelerati­ng modernizat­ion of the bad old subway system’s signal system, which is the root cause of a huge share of delays and breakdowns.

Communicat­ions-based train control is the answer; everyone knows it. The challenge is getting from here to there without shuttering large swaths of the 24/7 system for long periods of time.

The estimate for putting it on every line: 40 years. Byford thinks he can get it done it in less than 10 years for big lines carrying almost all the passengers. Get going. He also wants better buses and smarter routes. And to make the undergroun­d far more accessible to people with disabiliti­es — a legal and moral imperative — while improving the horrid AccessA-Ride system, the costly above-ground substitute.

And to provide clear quarterly updates on progress: crystal clear goals every three months, with pass-or-fail grades.

And to attack constructi­on costs, now insanely inflated by arcane union rules.

And to give workers, too often now treated like children, more autonomy, while holding them accountabl­e for results.

In a visit here yesterday, Byford also talked, though very generally, about working with the Transport Workers Union — a tight political ally of Gov. Cuomo — to find savings. If New Yorkers are going to be asked to spend more, we need to know our dollars are being stretched.

Byford is a quick study. The plan is as solid as they come. Except, oh yeah, that asterisk. Get back to us. No delays.

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