As Subway Riders Fume, City and State Leaders Are Mostly Mum
Andrew M. Cuomo of New York led a crowd celebrating the unveiling of the first part of the Second Avenue subway on New Year’s Eve. Mr. Cuomo has promoted building infrastructure, but has remained mostly silent on the state-run subway’s increasing woes. Credit Benjamin Norman for The New York Times
A signal malfunction at the height of the morning commute in New York City upends subway service from Brooklyn to the Bronx. Switch problems leave riders stranded across Brooklyn. A power failure at just one Manhattan station snarls nearly a dozen of the system’s 22 lines.
Through this list of recent woes, the person most responsible for ensuring that the trains run on time, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, has remained mostly silent as subway service gets worse by the day.
Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat who may be weighing a presidential run in 2020, has eagerly sought to burnish his legacy by focusing on infrastructure, from personally unveiling the first part of the Second Avenue subway on New Year’s Day to taking an inaugural joy ride across the new Kosciuszko Bridge last month. But the subway, the lifeblood of the city and arguably the most critical piece of infrastructure Mr. Cuomo controls, is falling apart on his watch.
“Governor Cuomo shows up to open the Second Avenue subway, but he’s missing in action for the day-to-day disaster that transit riders are experiencing,” John Raskin, the executive director of Riders Alliance, an advocacy group, said after the last major disruption.
The subway — a crown jewel of urban diversity, a vital piece of the local economy and a point of pride for millions of New Yorkers up and down the economic ladder — is rapidly deteriorating. Delays have soared to more than 70,000 each month from about 28,000 per month in 2012. Riders are losing wages when they miss work. Business leaders are worried about the future. Residents are souring on the city.
“I never know if I am going to get to anything on time,” said Frank Leone, 31, who lives in Queens. Worsening subway service has made him rethink living in New York City. “I give myself an hour to get to work everyday, even though it only takes 35 minutes,” he said, “and I still show up late to work.”
Yet Mr. Cuomo often gets a pass: Many riders — even some who work in city government — mistakenly direct their anger at Mayor Bill de Blasio, believing the city’s leader would naturally be in charge of its subway. Mr. de Blasio, also a Democrat, has been quick to disabuse them whenever the subject comes up and has also had little to say about the constant drumbeat of subway meltdowns.
“The M.T.A. is run by the State of New York, not the City of New York,” Mr. de Blasio said when asked directly about subway delays in a radio interview Thursday. “But we’re going to do all we can to push the state to invest in the subway system.”
Chronic problems with the state-run transit system have prompted some elected officials to wonder whether nearly six million daily riders would, in fact, be better off if the mayor took over.
“I’ve wanted to have a move to put it under the mayor’s control,” said Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president who has fumed over the subway chaos. “Because it is in the city, we should have someone who is directly responsible.”
That outcome is highly unlikely to be suggested by City Hall or Albany, both of which benefit from the current state of affairs: The mayor can plausibly pass the buck; and the governor remains at a safe political remove. Neither has shown any desire to work together on even simple issues — like whether a rogue deer in Harlem should have been euthanized — let alone on the most nettlesome problems plaguing the city’s most important public resource.
Frustrated commuters are left to wonder why Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio are not addressing their pain. It offers a stark contrast to how they respond when the news is good. In the days before the opening of the Second Avenue subway, Mr. Cuomo sent out a blizzard of news releases and regularly appeared before cameras to herald the line as an example of the big things government can do.
Mr. de Blasio was happy to bask in the spotlight when a new subway station opened nearly two years ago on the Far West Side of Manhattan — this one paid for by the city. The mayor has also held a series of events leading up to the recent launch of new ferry service, smiling broadly as he steered one of the new vessels.
Dani Lever, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Mr. Cuomo had helped to secure the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s largest capital improvement plan after years of underinvestment. (The de Blasio administration also pointed to its $2.5 billion commitment to the capital plan.)
“Still, the constant service disruptions are entirely unacceptable, so in the short-term, he has tasked the M.T.A. with developing a plan to address the root causes of the subway delays plaguing its customers,” Ms. Lever said in a statement.
This week, the authority will announce a $20 million plan to target frequent causes of delays, including overcrowding and signal problems. The first phase, which focuses on the Eighth Avenue lines in Manhattan, includes directing riders to painted zones at less busy locations on platforms and responding to incidents on the tracks more quickly.
The authority’s interim executive director, Veronique Hakim, said in an interview that the agency was committed to improving subway service.
“We feel it,” she said of the growing frustration. “We know it. We understand it.”
Mr. de Blasio has been wary of publicly delving into the subway’s current woes, City Hall officials said, to avoid provoking Mr. Cuomo and endangering transportation issues that the city and state are working on together, such as select bus service and preparations for the temporary closure of the L train.