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Some days, the subway seems worse than ever.
Pieces of debris rained down on the Barclays Center platform in Brooklyn last week. A few days earlier, storms flooded stations and named a new subway mascot: Flood Rat, a rodent spotted behind a pillar as the water rose.
But metro officials say the system is slowly improving – if you look closely.
On Monday, Andy Byford, the leader in charge of saving the New York subway, argued that the system was improving in a presentation to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.
"Statistics show that we are turning the corner where we need to turn it," said Byford. "There is no panacea. You do not just click your fingers and undo decades of under-investment.
But New Yorkers are frustrated by the fact that the subway is still unreliable more than a year after the agency launched a bailout of about $ 800 million to repair the system.
Here is what we know.
How the M.T.A. let's say that the subway is better?
M.T.A.A. provides a a lot of data to measure the performance of the metro. Metro officials say some statistics are going in the right direction.
The major incidents – the painful collapses that are delaying 50 or more trains – dropped by about 11.7% compared to the period before the introduction of the bailout in the summer of 2017.
But the statistics have been irregular. There were 105 major incidents in January and 56 in February. Last month, there were 62 major incidents, compared to 63 in August 2017.
Subway trains are breaking less often, although they are much less reliable than a few years ago. The distance traveled by metro cars was about 122,000 miles last month, compared to about 117,000 miles a year ago. But in 2015, the figure was higher, at around 140,000 miles between outages.
"We do not declare victory today by any means," said Sally Librera, the head of the subway department. "But we are here to talk about progress."
So why am I delayed all the time?
The metro service is often terrible. More than 60,000 trains were pushed back last month.
The punctuality rate for metro trains did not improve significantly. Last summer, only 68% of trains were at the time, up slightly from 65% the previous summer – the lowest rate since the 1970s metro crisis.
Carl Weisbrod, a M.T.A. member of the board of directors and former chairman of the city planning commission, said the bailout had produced only a "marginal improvement".
Metro officials said the workers had cleared 285 miles of track, repaired 1,300 signal defects and upgraded 1,600 metro cars. The agency hired over 1,000 additional workers.
Runners may be delayed in part because of all the work being done on the runways to improve the system, said Byford.
"The customer's point of view is probably the following:" In reality, things have not really improved because there are delays, literally because we are doing the work, "said Byford.
The subway rescue plan was intended to stabilize the system, Librera said. She acknowledged that the runners had lost confidence in the system.
"We know we have not won yet," said Librera. "We have more to do. We remain 100% committed. "
Will the metro be reliable again?
Byford proposed a broad plan to thoroughly review the subway, which could cost $ 37 billion over 10 years. The plan, known as Fast Forward, focuses on upgrading the system obsolete signals, which are a frequent reason for delays.
Most transit experts and elected officials support Mr. Byford's plan. Now he has to find a way to pay for it.
"Our metro system is in cardiac arrest and you are doing everything you can to stabilize it, but the reality is that we need a heart transplant," said Scott Rechler, a M.T.A. board member and real estate developer, said at the board meeting.
The metro has been a major issue in the governor's race and the local elections. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who controls authority, said he wants to pay Byford's plan by persuading state legislators to approve congestion pricing, a proposal to impose tolls on incoming drivers. in the busiest neighborhoods of Manhattan.
Mr Byford said that he was focused on supporting his plan.
"The challenge now is to achieve a crescendo when we enter the budget season, both for the city and for the state," he said, "to build a compelling and compelling case for funding Fast Forward. & # 39; "
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