Fix the subway already – activist groups

Fix the subway.

That was the message from social justice groups and transit advocates in Union Square Tuesday.

“Day after day, week after week, month after month, now year after year, New Yorkers are growing more and more frustrated,” Reynolds said. “The time is now, because it's not just a transportation issue, it's a quality-of-life issue, it's an economic issue and it's certainly a social justice and an environmental justice issue,” said Renae Reynolds, a transportation planner from the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. Reynolds' organization is one of two dozen that have signed onto a campaign called “Fix the Subway.”

The goal of the partnership is to build political pressure to get the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's turnaround plan, called Fast Forward, fully funded. It could cost up to $40 billion and is centered on the installation of modern subway signals over the next 10 years. “We want to highlight the real-world impact that terrible subway service has on eight million New Yorkers,” Jaqi Cohen, campaign coordinator for the Straphangers Campaign said.

The groups are pushing for a congestion pricing tax on vehicles in Manhattan that can collect up to $1.7 billion a year under some plans.

“We're going to demand and really fight for real funding this year,” Riders Alliance political director Rebecca Bailin said. “We'll be calling our legislators, we'll be meeting with them, we'll be rallying, making it clear that it's Cuomo's MTA.”

Cuomo has touted passing a partial congestion-pricing plan that puts fees on taxi and forhire car trips in Manhattan..