The federal department said it would withhold funding for New York if it doesn’t provide information on what it’s doing to protect public transit passengers.
NEW YORK CITY—Gov. Kathy Hochul said on March 21 that New York has provided information on what the state is doing to protect public transit passengers to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
A March 18 letter from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy contained a request for the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to share information concerning fund allocation, crime data, and employee training or face possible redirecting or cutting of funds.
If the city does not provide actions and plans to reduce crime, details on employees receiving deescalation training, and subway crime data by March 31, Duffy said the department will take “enforcement actions up to and including redirecting or withholding funding.”
The governor said at an announcement regarding congestion pricing that the information had been provided to the transportation secretary.
“I presented information in a very nice, colorful booklet that had all the data. I went again last Friday to update the data, which continues to improve.”
The specific information asked for includes actions and plans to reduce crime on the subway, the percentage of transit employees receiving de-escalation training, the number of transit worker assaults in the last two years, fare evasion data and recent strategies to combat it, criminal activity data and recent trends and mitigation efforts, and efforts to reduce the number of suicide and “subway surfing” incidents.
Hochul said this issue doesn’t need to cause hostilities between the state and the federal government.
“We don’t have to be at war over this. I think sometimes people have to play certain political actors,” she said. “They’re always welcome to come here. I can assure them a very fast commute around the city.”
New York City has been doing well in reducing crime, according to Hochul.
“We’re down 24 percent in crimes from last year, down 29 percent since 2019, down 50 percent since 2001. I think we can do better. Send us my money, and we will continue to do that.”
The letter from Duffy to MTA Chair and Chief Executive Officer Janno Lieber stated: “To protect the safety of passengers and workers and, in turn, promote travel by public transit, [the MTA] must ensure a safe and clean environment, reduce crime and fare evasion, and maintain a safe operating system.
“Notably, there have been a number of high-profile safety related incidents occurring on the system, and citizens of the city have openly expressed their support for expanded care for individuals struggling with mental illness to specifically address some of these safety concerns.”
Those incidents include a woman being burned to death on a train in December, and a man who was injured after being pushed onto the tracks in January.