The Trump administration’s new demand that the MTA fork over publicly accessible knowledge on transit crime quantities to little greater than “shadowboxing and bluster” in its newest battle in opposition to the transit company, critics stated Wednesday.
In a Tuesday night time letter to the pinnacle of the MTA, U.S. Division of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy set a March 31 deadline for New York Metropolis Transit to element what’s being finished to fight crime inside the system — together with assaults on staff and riders, fare evasion and subway browsing.
Duffy warned {that a} failure to take action would carry heavy monetary penalties for an company that’s in search of $14 billion in federal funding for its subsequent capital plan. Even with that cash, MTA officers have beforehand stated that the $68.4 billion, five-year blueprint for system maintenance already faces a funding shortfall of greater than $30 billion.
Duffy trashed the subway as harmful and soiled throughout a Wednesday morning look on “Fox & Friends.”
“If they don’t get on board to change their ways, we’re pulling cash,” he stated.
Duffy on the New York Metropolis subway: “It’s dangerous. It’s dirty … they don’t want you to drive your car. They want you to take a train. If you want me to take a train, make the train safe, make it clean. But if you won’t do that, we’re gonna pull money.”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-03-19T13:41:42.777Z
MTA officers stated the feds will get what they need earlier than the deadline, however identified that a lot of that data is already publicly accessible.
“That information that the federal government is asking for — little secret, it’s already out there in the public,” John McCarthy, the MTA’s chief of coverage and exterior relations, testified Wednesday at a beforehand scheduled Metropolis Council transportation committee oversight listening to. “So we’ll put it together for them and make sure that they have it in a handy way so that they can learn it.”
The MTA publishes a month-to-month report on crime inside the subway system, itemizing NYPD statistics for felonies in addition to numbers on hate crimes, fare evasion and extra. Officers on Wednesday pointed to a 29% drop in crime from final yr, which has come because the NYPD has beefed up its police presence in stations and on trains.
“These results are a step in the right direction, but there is more work to be done,” Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York Metropolis Transit, testified earlier than the Council transportation committee.
Up to date numbers on assaults in opposition to transit employees can be found on the state’s Open Information portal. The transit company additionally publicly charts vandalism inside the transit system, together with graffiti, damaged glass in stations and on trains. The NYPD additionally tracks subway browsing numbers and transit officers stated Wednesday that arrest numbers for using exterior of trains are up.
“We have really become the gold standard of public information — we get that from advocate groups that have in the recent past been critical of the MTA,” stated McCarthy. “Now we’re sort of leading the league in getting information up on websites and available to the public so they can scrutinize it.”
The most recent strain from the USDOT comes simply two days earlier than one other deadline the feds have given the MTA: In February, Duffy despatched a letter to MTA officers saying he was revoking the authorization for congestion pricing. The Trump administration has given the MTA till this Friday, March 21, to terminate the Manhattan car tolling plan.
However the state and MTA officers have vowed that the vehicle-tolling system is staying on whereas its authorized problem to the federal authorities’s shutdown order winds its method by means of court docket.
MTA Chief of Coverage and Exterior Relations John McCarthy (proper) testifies at Metropolis Council finances listening to, March 19, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The aggression by the feds has left watchdogs and advocates confused as as to if any of it’s about truly making the system higher.
“This feels like shadowboxing and bluster,” added Ben Furnas, govt director of Transportation Alternate options. “I don’t fully understand the thinking behind it, except that they’re trying to make some kind of political point.”
The USDOT didn’t reply to a request for remark.
However transit advocates stated the Trump administration’s calls for for extra knowledge on transit crime is little greater than noise whereas the MTA goals to speculate billions to hurry service inside the 110-year-old subway system.
“They’re doing it in a way to make an example of New York City,” stated Jaqi Cohen, director of local weather and fairness coverage for Tri-State Transportation Marketing campaign. “If the federal government is so concerned with the way New York operates, it would be doing all it could to fund transit and frequency of transit, which we know keeps people safe.”
Associated
