The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board on Dec. 16 agreed on a 2021 budget and 2021-24 financial plan that assumes federal relief will arrive—despite Congress’ continuing debate on the next COVID-19 relief package. Officials said the budget assumes MTA will receive $4.5 billion as part of that package.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority outlined a “worst-case” 2021 spending plan at its Nov. 18 Board meeting. Proposed are service reductions of 40% across subways and buses, and of 50% across Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Metro-North Railroad (MNR), with layoffs of nearly 9,400. Also on continued pause: MTA’s $51.5 billion capital plan. The moves could go forward in absence of $12 billion in federal aid, MTA said.
MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) started returning its Bombardier R179 fleet to revenue service Sept. 23.
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board recently awarded a $233 million contract to Wabtec for 25 electric-diesel hybrid locomotives for use on NYC Transit work trains as part of the agency’s “ongoing efforts to improve environmental sustainability and health and safety for employees and customers.”
As New York City enters Phase 4 of reopening, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) launched “Operation Respect,” a multi-layered strategy to encourage universal face covering compliance by customers on the region’s trains, buses and commuter rails.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Transit Innovation Partnership launched a new “COVID-19 Response Challenge” in an effort to engage the private tech industry and rapidly evaluate and deploy innovative technologies that make public transit safer, healthier and more responsive to customer and workforce needs in light of the global pandemic.
Sally Librera, the first woman appointed MTA New York City Transit Senior Vice President Subways, has resigned, effective July 24.
Among the final duties that former MTA New York City Transit Vice President Network and Resignaling Pete Tomlin discharged before he left the agency following Andy Byford’s resignation as President was demonstrating an innovative piece of new technology—UWB (Ultra-Wide Band), wireless technology that offers faster and less-expensive installation of modern CBTC (communications-based train control) by eliminating much of the onboard and wayside equipment traditionally required for advanced-technology signaling. Tomlin—arguably one of the finest signaling and train control people on the planet—collaborated with suppliers Thales and Piper Networks in an impressive public demonstration of UWB.
New York has long been known as the “City That Never Sleeps,” partly because its subway system has, with very few exceptions (Superstorm Sandy and 9/11 among them) continuously operated 24/7 since it opened in 1904. That will soon change, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has announced that the system—plagued with homeless people who have turned it into a trash-strewn shelter—will shut down for four hours, between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m., every night, beginning in the early hours of Wednesday, May 6, for cleaning. As well, the MTA has instituted new rules implemented new rules to restrict those who have been camping on the system.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo predicted last year that the Canarsie Tunnels between Brooklyn and Fourteenth Street in Manhattan on New York City Transit’s L train line would be repaired without a major service disruption. He was correct. Cuomo announced on April 26 that the service reductions necessitated by the tunnel repair project were over, and that both tunnels would be open for service on April 27 under the New York MTA Essential Service Plan. His announcement came on the one-year anniversary of the beginning of reduced service.