The new request from the Trump administration that the MTA fork on data accessible to the public on transit crime is hardly more than “Shadowboxing and Bluster” in its last battle against the Transit agency, criticisms announced on Wednesday.
In a Tuesday evening letter At the head of the MTA, the United States Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Sean Duffy Assaults against employees and the riders, escape And Metro surfing.
Duffy warned that a failure to do it would transport financial consequences For an agency that requires $ 14 billion in federal funding for its next fixed assets. Even with this money, MTA officials have already said that the $ 68.4 billion, BluePrint at five For system maintenance, already faced a funding deficit of more than $ 30 billion.
Duffy ransacked the metro as dangerous and dirty during a Wednesday morning, appearance on “Fox & Friends”.
“If they don’t get on board to change their tracks, we are getting money,” he said.
MTA officials said the federal authorities will get what they want before the deadline, but stressed that a large part of this information is already available publicly.
“This information that the federal government requires little secret, it is already there in the public,” said John McCarthy, the head of MTA political and external relations on Wednesday during a hearing of the previously planned municipal council. “We will therefore put them together for them and make sure that they have it practically so that they can learn it.”
The MTA publishes a monthly report On crime in the metro system, listing NYPD’s statistics for crimes as well as figures on hatred crimes, the escape of prices and more. On Wednesday, officials underlined a 29% drop in crime compared to last year, which came like NYPD reinforced its police presence in stations and trains.
“These results are a step in the right direction, but there is more work to be done,” said Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York City Transit, before the Council Transport Committee.
Updated numbers on Assault against public transport workers are available on the open data portal. The public transport agency also operates publicly vandalism In the transit system, including graffiti, broken glass in stations and trains. The NYPD also follows the metro surfing numbers and public transport officials said on Wednesday that the arrest numbers for rolling outside the trains were increasing.
“We have really become the public information stallion – we get this groups of defenders who have been in the recent past criticizing the MTA,” said McCarthy. “Now we are doing the league in a way to obtain information on websites and available to the public so that they can examine it.”
The last pressure of the USDOT comes just two days before another deadline that the federal authorities gave to the MTA: in February, Duffy sent a letter to the officials of the MTA saying that he revoked the authorization for the pricing of the congestion. The Trump administration gave MTA until Friday, March 21 to end the Manhattan vehicle toll plan.
But the officials of the State and the MTA have sworn that the The vehicle chip system remains on while one legal challenge to the federal government closing order Fraying a path in court.
The assault by the federal authorities has left childcare dogs and confused defenders as to whether one of them is to improve the system.
“It looks like Shadowboxing and Bluster,” added Ben Furnas, executive director of transport alternatives. “I do not fully understand the thought behind, except that they try to assert a kind of political point.”
The USDOT did not respond to a request for comments.
But public transport defenders said that Trump administration’s requests for more data on transit crime are hardly more than noise while MTA aims to invest billions to accelerate service in the 110 -year -old metro system.
“They do so in a way to make an example of New York,” said Jaqi Cohen, director of climate and policy on actions for the three -state transportation campaign. “If the federal government is so concerned about the functioning of New York, it would do everything it could finance the transit and the frequency of the transit, which we know ensures people’s safety.”