Chaos has taken over New York's public transportation

With the announced increase in the price of subway and bus tickets, of just over 5% – a swim compared to the increase in the price entrenched in the shopping basket despite the gradual reduction in inflation – the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will not have even a coat of paint, how well it would suit the often grimy suburban to wash his face.

To the deficit caused by the pandemic, which massively reduced the volume of users even months after the emergency ended, is added the fact that New York's is a dysfunctional and, to put it clearly, chaotic transport system. The metro network is operated manually, with drivers who warn of frequent incidents by public address system and with a random circulation, which skips stations daily. On land, the slowest bus fleet in the US operates, with an average speed of eight miles per hour (less than 13 km / h). Not to mention the periphery, such as some neighborhood in Queens, which only arrives one bus every hour, if there are no delays.

The announced proposed increase, from $2.75 to $2.90 per ticket, will take effect in early September. But the MTA has already adopted surgical measures, such as the most radical increase in the ticket of ferries, vital to cross to Manhattan from Queens or Brooklyn and vice versa, and that in autumn went from $ 2.75 to four each way. Add the existence of the Staten Island Ferry, a free service, which operates 24 hours every day of the year, to complete the picture of the system's bottomless well.

In a country where state intervention (the federal government) is anathema, the health of New York's transportation system depends precisely on aid from Washington. The last annual financial plan, of July 2022, found a recurring structural deficit of 2,500 million dollars, covered by federal aid until 2024. By 2025, the black hole may reach 3 billion, according to an internal audit.

The dire state of the MTA's finances is partly explained by the pandemic, when, in the wake of the abysmal decline in ridership, it froze biennial fare and toll increases that began in 2010. When it approved its budget for 2023 last year, with the 5.5% increase in fares, the objective was to plug a gap created by the persistent reduction in the volume of users. Alternative forms of transportation, such as bicycles or skateboards, seduced many New Yorkers during the health crisis, while teleworking emptied much of Manhattan's offices. The occupancy level of commercial buildings is far from what it was before 2020 and, consequently, the use of public transport has not recovered.

Walkable city

From the nightmare of moving around New York – which has at least one advantage: being the most walkable city in the US – it is worth an anecdote of the bus network. One Saturday in May, in the middle of the afternoon, a service of the 7 line, which links lower Manhattan with Harlem, was stopped on Sixth Avenue by numerous fire trucks, which were attending an incident. On board the bus were two women. Overcome the clot of cars, more than an hour later, the driver asked the passengers what their destination was and started like a soul that carries the devil, depositing the travelers at their respective stops and turning around the race to reduce passengers from which he had skipped. Two weeks later, on the same line, the bus spent an hour and 45 minutes on the same route.

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