According to the MTA, goodwill in the subway continues to fall

The metro traffic continues to decline.

The figures released by MTA Friday night show that the number of passengers on the subway continued to fall this summer.

Week-end traffic fell 8.8% in August 2018 compared to the same month a year earlier. This equates to half a million fewer MetroCard card attempts per weekend.

At the same time, weekday traffic also continued to decline, with a 2.5% drop in August 2018.

"People see all these diversion notices and become discouraged. They leave the station and get an Uber, "said Andrew Albert, representative of runners on the MTA board of directors.

He added that the drop in weekday ridership could be partly due to the MTA's decision to start following the lane in 24 hours and to report work from 9:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

This is not the end of bad news. The MTA warned its board of directors in the documents that the weeklong traffic spells could speed up, noting that the drop from one year to the next was "a lower than in the second quarter of 2018 ".

"Passengers really depend on a thriving public transit system," said Rebecca Bailin, spokesperson for Riders Alliance. "There are millions of New Yorkers who can not afford to flee the subways when they are not working."

"A fair city in New York needs a functioning public transit system," she added. "The responsibility lies with the Cuomo government and the Albany legislature to repair it."

The report is the latest evidence that the three-year decline in metro ridership continues unabated, as users who are tired of signal failures and outages opt either to stay at home or to stay away from home. Other means of transport, which will weigh down MTAs controlled by Cuomo. finances.

"The decrease in goodwill on the metro for three years has had a significant impact on the MTA's operating budget," state controller Tom DiNapoli said in an audit last week. . "The number of passengers on the subway and buses in 2019 is expected to be 236 million fewer than the MTA forecast three years ago, which could result in a cumulative $ 822 million in revenue loss from 2016 to 2019. "

The new boss of the subway system, Andy Byford, has proposed a $ 37 billion plan to reorganize the system, including replacing the train signal system decades old. However, it remains unfunded.

The new documents show that the MTA continues to struggle to keep its signals and that trains are circulating at the time, announcing the latest drop in attendance.

More than 48,000 trains were delayed in September 2018, a decrease of 17% from the previous September.

According to new statistics, 69% of the trains were at the time, which represents a slight improvement compared to the 64.6% recorded last September.

In the last 12 months, the metro has an average percentage of just 65% on time.

"This month's metro report shows service improvements in every metric, which is very encouraging. We still have a lot of work to do to regain confidence, but we are determined to do the job for New Yorkers, "said MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein. .

At the same time, the mediocre figures allowed Marc Molinario, a GOP-backed GOP governor, to tackle Cuomo's decrepit system.

"The subway system is in a spiral of death due to the appalling mismanagement of a governor who prefers ribbon cutting projects," said Molinaro. "It can be directly attributed to the contempt of Andrew Cuomo for the system, namely the decline in attendance and the fall in percentages in the time allowed."

The Cuomo campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.