The Trump administration is threatening to tug federal funding from New York Metropolis’s transit system if it doesn’t present a plan to handle crime.
Whereas New York transit officers level to publicly out there statistics exhibiting main crime on the subway system is trending down this yr, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy famous “quite a few high-profile security associated incidents” in a letter despatched Tuesday to the top of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“If you can’t keep your subway safe, if people can’t go to the subway and not be afraid of being stabbed or thrown in front of tracks or burnt … we’re going to pull your money,” Duffy mentioned in a “Fox & Friends” interview on Wednesday.
Transit techniques in Chicago and Washington, D.C., additionally may lose important federal {dollars} in the event that they don’t clear up, Duffy mentioned.
New York officers mentioned they’d be blissful to debate how the MTA and NYPD are working to scale back crime and fare evasion.
Violent crime is uncommon total in New York’s subway system, which carries tens of millions of riders every single day. Prepare vehicles and stations are typically as secure as some other public place. Nonetheless, latest high-profile assaults, akin to a lady being set on hearth and folks being shoved onto the tracks, have left some riders on edge.
Main felonies within the system have ticked down total the previous few years, though the variety of assaults have risen, from 373 in 2019 to 579 in 2024, in response to NYPD knowledge.
Officers have additionally moved to publicize present efforts to crack down on fare evasion and different offenses by deploying extra cops within the transit system. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, despatched state Nationwide Guard members to the entrances of among the metropolis’s busier stations final yr in what she described as a visual deterrent towards crime.
Duffy’s letter seeks an inventory of the actions and plans New York officers have taken to handle transit employee assaults, fare evasion and different prison exercise, together with buyer assaults and accidents. The letter particularly mentions “passengers being pushed in front of trains,” “subway surfing” and suicides.
The letter threatened to redirect or withhold funds if the company does not adjust to its request for data and gave a deadline of March 31. The MTA, which additionally runs New York Metropolis’s buses and regional rail networks, depends on a mixture of native, state and federal funding. Its $68 billion, five-year capital plan via 2029 anticipates $14 billion in federal grants and funds.
New York additionally faces a Friday deadline to adjust to a Trump administration order to halt Manhattan’s new congestion pricing system. State officers have vowed to proceed the tolling program, which is supposed to skinny site visitors and pump new income into the nation’s busiest transit system.
Duffy’s letter doesn’t point out the congestion pricing subject.
