The federal transportation chief who trashed the subway as a “sh-thole” took a photo-op practice experience with Mayor Eric Adams on Friday — however didn’t trouble giving a heads-up to the MTA.
In his newest jab at New York’s transit system, Division of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy hinted that the MTA could also be in line for a probe of its spending habits — after beforehand threatening to withhold billions of {dollars} in federal funding.
“I’m going to offer folks from DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] to come down and take a look at what MTA is doing, how they’re spending money and can they be more efficient to taxpayers in the state of New York,” Duffy stated whereas standing subsequent to Adams contained in the Broadway-Lafayette station.
MTA CEO Janno Lieber — who’d gone to the Borough Corridor station in Brooklyn the place many activists and journalists initially thought the mayor and Duffy can be — stated it was “disappointing” to obtain “no response” from Duffy after officers on the transit company obtained wind of his subway go to by way of social media posts.
Duffy has repeatedly taken purpose at congestion pricing, the Manhattan vehicle-tolling program that’s designed to lift billions of {dollars} for MTA capital upgrades, and threatened to tug funding over subway crime.
“If he’s in charge of transportation in the United States and transit in the United States, he needs to be properly briefed,” Lieber advised reporters on the Borough Corridor station in Brooklyn. “He keeps making statements about congestion pricing, about the subway.
“But it just shows, his staff is not properly briefing him, he’s not getting accurate information.”
Lieber pointed to new NYPD information that reveals subway crime is down by 22% this 12 months when in comparison with 2024 — figures that officers have beforehand touted as being at their lowest degree in 15 years.
“Progress is being made, the mayor himself touted it yesterday,” Lieber stated. “And not for nothing, fare evasion in the subway system is down by 30% since last summer.”
The drop in crime has come because the uniformed presence in stations and on trains has repeatedly surged, with Governor Kathy Hochul saying in January that two NYPD officers are actually assigned to experience on each in a single day practice.
However officers have acknowledged that assaults have elevated by greater than 50% since 2019.
That adopted the transportation secretary’s shock subway experience together with Adams, which was chronicled by a number of hand-picked reporters. High MTA officers and transit advocates had proven up in Brooklyn in hopes of confronting the pair, solely to study that they had taken one other route.
The mayor as an alternative stood smiling alongside Duffy in Manhattan days after a federal choose dismissed his corruption case and stated he was “very pleased” to be joined by President Donald Trump’s transportation chief.
“Often, bureaucrats throughout the years, they attempt to solve these problems from inside the sterilized environment of their offices,” Adams stated. “We’ve got to get on the ground and look and see — that is what the invite was.
“I made it clear, this administration is going to work with our federal partners.”
As rumors of Duffy and Adams’ subway jaunt bounced round social media, some transit advocates additionally confirmed up on the Borough Corridor station in hopes of creating a degree about the necessity to fund transit.
MTA Chair Janno Lieber speaks on the Borough Corridor station in Brooklyn about congestion pricing, April 4, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
“New Yorkers rely on transit,” stated Betsy Plum, govt director of Riders Alliance, who popped by the Borough Corridor station after being at a close-by assembly. “If you really care about improving transit for New Yorkers, you would be committed to investing in it and ensuring that more New Yorkers can ride.”
Almost a 3rd of the MTA’s $68.4 billion capital enhancements plan for 2025 to 2029 just isn’t funded and congestion pricing was created to fill a greater than $15 billion hole within the earlier five-year plan.
The USDOT as an alternative moved to place an finish to the brand new tolls in February, an try to observe via on a Trump marketing campaign pledge.
The MTA countered with a federal lawsuit, whereas Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged to maintain the tolling system despite the order from Washington.
The governor’s workplace on Friday cited the drop in subway crime and Hochul’s collection of steps — many taken in partnership with Adams — to make riders really feel extra comfy whereas in transit.
Duffy’s shock go to got here after Lieber final week stated he would welcome the chance to indicate the transportation secretary across the system. As an alternative, it become a spectacle, as reporters not on the visitor record tried to find Duffy and Adams throughout their subway jaunt.
“It’s completely embarrassing at best for both the federal government and the mayor,” Plum stated.
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