City Squeezes Riders as Capital Plan Falls Short

BY PETE DONOHUE

Overcrowding in the subways continues to intensify. So much so that comparing riders to sardines packed in a tin a can seems insulting - - to the sardines.

The fish have more room.

It’s gotten so bad, and the outlook so bleak, that transit executives have discussed hashing out with the NYPD a formal arrangement with protocols for the deployment of police officers as subway gatekeepers on a routine basis, not just for special events like the Papal visit and/or emergencies. Cops would oversee the “metering” of riders to platforms. The goal would be to alleviate dangerous overcrowding where riders are squeezed toe-to-heel, filling every inch of concrete from one edge of a platform to the other. Welcome to Third World NYC. Uniformed police holding back commuters trying to get to work or home.

It would be a politically ugly image for the city to project. The problem is there really are no quick solutions. Signal upgrades and expansion projects like the Second Ave. subway take a lot of time and money. Even projects now planned could get shelved. Gov. Cuomo has pledged $8.3 billion to fund the already-behind schedule, and still unfunded, MTA capital plan. The MTA wants to city to provide $3.2 billion in subsidies, including $1.5 billion for the second phase of the Second Ave. subway. Mayor de Blasio, however, has said the funding shortfall is largely a state problem.

The mayor points to the No. 7 train extension to show the city is already doing its fair share. It’s true the city funded the extension. But it had no choice. The MTA refused to pay the tab because the project doesn’t do anything to address the biggest challenge facing the system – overcrowding and increasing demand. Mayor Bloomberg wanted to spur redevelopment on the West Side with hotels and office towers. So he came up with a funding scheme for the extension featuring fees and taxes paid by developers and property owners in the area.

Riders, of course, aren’t the only ones to benefit from a fully funded capital plan. Station rehabilitations, new buses and new subway cars mean a better work environment. The capital plan, fully funded, also means more work for Local 100 members involved in construction, structural repairs, elevator reconstruction and other plan-funded jobs. It means a growing and stronger union. Advocates have long argued the city’s contribution to the capital plan is far too small. Only mayors have disputed the claim.

Even one de Blasio’s nominees to the MTA board agrees. Veronica Vanterpool is executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. The group published a piece on its website in September 2014 that included this line:  “New York City’s annual contribution to the MTA’s Capital Plan remains a pittance.”

The reality is it’s going to take a heavy lift by both the state and city governments to fully fund the capital plan. But it’s undoubtedly the right thing to do for the working, and riding, men and women of the city. Besides, cops have better things to do than being subway bouncers.