Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the MTA should set particular benchmarks for when the subways will return to 24-hour service, transit advocates mentioned Thursday — with some elevating fears that the in a single day closures set to start out subsequent week may grow to be everlasting given the transit company’s monetary woes.
“Even with ridership down considerably, 1000's of important employees experience the subway in a single day. New Yorkers must see the governor’s plan for a way nighttime bus service will choose up the slack,” mentioned David Bragdon, of the Manhattan-based TransitCenter assume tank, in an announcement.
“The governor ought to announce particular milestones that may set off the resumption of in a single day service.”
Bragdon advised new COVID-19 infections or ridership ranges as potential benchmarks. Transit officers plan to offer shuttles and for-hire vehicles to the 11,000 straphangers nonetheless using when trains and stations are shut down.
Tri-State Transportation Marketing campaign Government Director Nick Sifuentes advised The Put up he’s optimistic the general public will demand 24-hour service when the COVID-19 virus lastly passes — however that he worries the MTA may use its dire monetary straights to justify persevering with in a single day closures.
“We'd like some clear benchmarks,” Sifuentes mentioned. “What we don’t need to occur is for the MTA to cancel in a single day service due to cash versus security.”
Talking to 1010 WINS host Susan Richards on Thursday afternoon, Cuomo declined to say when the 1 a.m-5 a.m. closures — instituted to permit for station cleansing and anti-homeless sweeps — would finish.
“You inform me when the pandemic ends, I’ll let you know how lengthy it lasts,” Cuomo mentioned. “We’re doing this due to the virus. When the virus is gone, we will get again to regular — in so some ways.”
Not less than one group of consultants endorsed the plan: The Regional Plan Affiliation, which first floated the idea of eliminating 24/7 service in 2017.
“Sustaining a transit system that helps the wants of a 24/7 metropolis is extremely difficult, each earlier than and in the course of the Covid-19 disaster,” mentioned RPA President Tom Wright
Wright advised in a single day closures are a “essential means to enhance upkeep and advance capital tasks extra quickly” — a profit one transit supply mentioned can be tough to place into motion in the course of the ongoing pandemic.
State Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan), in the meantime, mentioned he would suggest laws “requiring the MTA’s nighttime shutdown to be non permanent and a return to 24/7 service after any declared finish to the pandemic.”
“And not using a legislation, we’ve created a precedent for the MTA to maneuver away from 24/7 service,” Hoylman tweeted. “I’d desire to not permit them to contemplate the continuation of a system with out it.”
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