Guess Who Pays for Gov’s Neglect

With commuters’ “Summer of Hell” now in its second year, a new Federal Reserve report makes a noteworthy point: Those suffering most from transit delays are low-income New Yorkers — the very folks Gov. Cuomo claims to champion.

Some of the Feds’ conclusions are obvious: People who live outside Manhattan, where housing costs are lower, tend to be poorer. These commuters face longer travel times — and a greater chance of service disruption. They also have fewer commuting options, so when things break down, they’re up a creek.

About half of working New Yorkers in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx rely on the subway to get to work.

But that raises a question: Cuomo has been governor for nearly eight years; why during that time did he let a system so critical to these people go to rot?

Indeed, the report describes the heavy toll that years of disinvestment in the subways have taken on the working poor. Yet Cuomo has focused instead on grandiose

expansion projects, like the Second Avenue Subway. Even now, he’s touting a $1.6 billion AirTrain to La Guardia airport.

Obviously, it’s vital for him and the MTA to focus like a laser on getting the system up to snuff, pronto. The good news: They may have finally gotten the message. The agency is now working on short- and longterm plans for major fixes and upgrades.

At the same time, city and state officials need to be careful about jacking up the cost of transit alternatives for outer-borough commuters, like Uber and Lyft. As Mayor de Blasio and the City Council consider new restrictions on these car services, they ought to remember just who relies on them for backup transit.