The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) on April 20 announced that the number of employees who have returned to work following mandatory quarantines is now higher than those still out on quarantine. System-wide, 5,033 employees have returned to work, compared with 4,112 employees currently out on quarantine.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Transport Workers Union of America have reached an agreement establishing a $500,000 COVID-19 death benefit for TWU members who died after being infected with the virus. Under the agreement, the MTA will pay the $500,000 in a lump sum to the spouse, beneficiary or estate of each deceased member who was in active service on or after Feb. 1, 2020. The TWU agreement extends the COVID-19 death benefit to members of four TWU Locals: Local 100, Local 106, Local 2001 and Local 2055.
Fitch Ratings downgraded approximately $800 million of outstanding TRB Series 2020C (transportation revenue bonds, climate bond certified) to be issued by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) from AA- to A+ and outstanding TRB anticipation notes to F1 from F1+, but removed the agency’s long-term rating from Rating Watch Negative status. The Rating Outlook is Negative.
Following the deaths, on the same day, from coronavirus of a subway conductor and a bus driver, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has secured 75,000 protective masks for its frontline employees.
New York City Transit President Andy Byford resigned on Jan. 23. Andy was hired in January 2018 to improve and transform New York City’s 116-year-old subway, North America’s largest, and he was doing just that. But he got fed up with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who thinks he’s in charge of running New York’s railways. Now, someone else will have to carry on—if they’re capable—and that remains to be seen.
The nation’s largest public transportation agency, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), on Oct. 25 issued an RFP (Request for Proposals) for one or more consultants to assist it with its Transformation Plan, described as “the first reorganization in more than half a century … that will position the agency to dramatically improve service, end project delays and cost overruns, and finally deliver the modern, reliable and efficient transportation system customers deserve.”
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) on Sept. 16 released a proposed $51.5 billion 2020-2024 capital investment plan it describes as “by far the highest in the MTA’s history, increasing spending on infrastructure by 70% over current levels.” MTA plans to invest more than $40 billion in New York City Transit subways and buses as well as make major investments in the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuter rail networks.
After roughly two years’ worth of delays, MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) has taken the wraps off its new M-9 EMU (electric multiple-unit) commuter railcars. The first eight-car trainset departed Sept. 11 at 6:50 am from Huntington.
At a legislative hearing on Aug. 16, 2018, Gateway Program Development Corp Interim Executive Director John D. Porcari said, “There is no Plan B.” He was wrong. At the same hearing, this writer (as Chair of the Lackawanna Coalition, a New Jersey-based advocacy organization) outlined the “Plan B” that some rider-advocates had formulated and submitted, in the event that the entire $30 billion-plus Gateway program as currently proposed fails to attract sufficient funding. Porcari stuck to his story that the existing North River Tunnels are deteriorating so quickly that they constitute a disaster waiting to happen but, under his proposal, they would not be repaired until 2030 or some time shortly thereafter.
Sarah Feinberg, who served as U.S. Federal Railroad Administrator in the Obama Administration from 2015 to 2017, has been nominated by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to fill a vacancy on the NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.
