MTA presses Trump administration to kick in money for upgrades
If the Trump administration is concerned about conditions inside New York’s subway system, then it should pony up more cash to help improve them, MTA leaders said Wednesday.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials, at their monthly board meeting, rebutted recent remarks by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has threatened to withhold federal transit funding from New York unless it addresses "dangerous" and "dirty" conditions in its subway system.
MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber, speaking to reporters, said he was "mystified" by Duffy’s assessment.
"I don’t get it. I’m scratching my head, but we’re going to try to stay a fact-based organization as we try to respond to some of this incoming stuff," Lieber said.
In a presentation to board members, MTA chief security officer Michael Kemper highlighted several statistics meant to contradict Duffy’s depiction of New York’s transit system as a hellscape of crime, filth and homelessness.
Compared with 1997, when the subway system was averaging 6,218 felonies per year, or about 17 per day, crime fell 64% by 2024, to 2,213 felonies per year, or about 6 per day, Kemper told the board. Last year also saw the fewest reported felonies in the subway system in 15 years, excluding 2020 and 2021, when ridership plummeted because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kemper said.
"The current subway crime data, although not perfect and not where we want it to be, is promising and encouraging, certainly not where we were a few years ago," Kemper said.
While total felonies were down 24% last year compared with 2019, Kemper acknowledged assaults "have dramatically risen" — up 55% in 2024 compared with 2019.
MTA officials said several factors are to blame for the increase, including an ongoing mental health crisis in New York, criminal laws that don’t adequately punish repeat offenders and efforts to rein in fare evasion. As police have cracked down on fare beaters, assaults on NYPD officers in the transit system climbed 152% since 2019, Kemper said.
While the MTA spent $513 million on safety and security in 2024, the $1.5 billion to $2 billion it receives in federal aid each year is "relatively small," MTA co-chief financial officer Jai Patel said.
"Any conversation with the federal government needs to also include a discussion of why we in New York receive 17% of all federal formula funding, despite carrying 43% of the nation’s transit ridership," MTA policy and external communications chief John McCarthy said. "This needs to be fixed."
Gov. Kathy Hochul has been looking for ways to fund the MTA’s latest five-year capital budget, which aims to spend $69 billion on infrastructure.
On Tuesday, Hochul and state legislative leaders wrote President Donald Trump and Duffy asking them to increase federal transit aid to "align" with the MTA's high ridership.
It was an "outrageous" request, according to Duffy, who last week threatened to cut federal funding to the MTA if it didn’t quickly take down its congestion pricing toll program.
Duffy wrote in a post Tuesday on X: "Instead of addressing rampant crime that’s scaring riders away or actually fixing their financial mismanagement, the state is trying to fill the gap with highway funds and taxing the working class."
While Republican lawmakers on Long Island are also fighting against the MTA, a new report shows their constituents have benefited from the transit investments more than any other New Yorkers in recent years.
According to the report from the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management and Reinvent Albany, a government watchdog group, since 2000, the Long Island Rail Road has received 19% of MTA capital dollars, despite carrying just 3% of the MTA’s riders.
The nearly $18.70 spent per LIRR customer was higher than for riders on New York City subways, buses, or sister railroad Metro-North, according to the report.
If the Trump administration is concerned about conditions inside New York’s subway system, then it should pony up more cash to help improve them, MTA leaders said Wednesday.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials, at their monthly board meeting, rebutted recent remarks by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has threatened to withhold federal transit funding from New York unless it addresses "dangerous" and "dirty" conditions in its subway system.
MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber, speaking to reporters, said he was "mystified" by Duffy’s assessment.
"I don’t get it. I’m scratching my head, but we’re going to try to stay a fact-based organization as we try to respond to some of this incoming stuff," Lieber said.
In a presentation to board members, MTA chief security officer Michael Kemper highlighted several statistics meant to contradict Duffy’s depiction of New York’s transit system as a hellscape of crime, filth and homelessness.
Compared with 1997, when the subway system was averaging 6,218 felonies per year, or about 17 per day, crime fell 64% by 2024, to 2,213 felonies per year, or about 6 per day, Kemper told the board. Last year also saw the fewest reported felonies in the subway system in 15 years, excluding 2020 and 2021, when ridership plummeted because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kemper said.
"The current subway crime data, although not perfect and not where we want it to be, is promising and encouraging, certainly not where we were a few years ago," Kemper said.
While total felonies were down 24% last year compared with 2019, Kemper acknowledged assaults "have dramatically risen" — up 55% in 2024 compared with 2019.
MTA officials said several factors are to blame for the increase, including an ongoing mental health crisis in New York, criminal laws that don’t adequately punish repeat offenders and efforts to rein in fare evasion. As police have cracked down on fare beaters, assaults on NYPD officers in the transit system climbed 152% since 2019, Kemper said.
While the MTA spent $513 million on safety and security in 2024, the $1.5 billion to $2 billion it receives in federal aid each year is "relatively small," MTA co-chief financial officer Jai Patel said.
"Any conversation with the federal government needs to also include a discussion of why we in New York receive 17% of all federal formula funding, despite carrying 43% of the nation’s transit ridership," MTA policy and external communications chief John McCarthy said. "This needs to be fixed."
Gov. Kathy Hochul has been looking for ways to fund the MTA’s latest five-year capital budget, which aims to spend $69 billion on infrastructure.
On Tuesday, Hochul and state legislative leaders wrote President Donald Trump and Duffy asking them to increase federal transit aid to "align" with the MTA's high ridership.
It was an "outrageous" request, according to Duffy, who last week threatened to cut federal funding to the MTA if it didn’t quickly take down its congestion pricing toll program.
Duffy wrote in a post Tuesday on X: "Instead of addressing rampant crime that’s scaring riders away or actually fixing their financial mismanagement, the state is trying to fill the gap with highway funds and taxing the working class."
While Republican lawmakers on Long Island are also fighting against the MTA, a new report shows their constituents have benefited from the transit investments more than any other New Yorkers in recent years.
According to the report from the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management and Reinvent Albany, a government watchdog group, since 2000, the Long Island Rail Road has received 19% of MTA capital dollars, despite carrying just 3% of the MTA’s riders.
The nearly $18.70 spent per LIRR customer was higher than for riders on New York City subways, buses, or sister railroad Metro-North, according to the report.
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
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'I wish his life was longer' Long Island lost at least 5,800 years of life to fatal crashes in 2023. Newsday examines LI's dangerous roads in a yearlong investigative series. NewsdayTV's Shari Einhorn reports.
