MTA touts continued improvement in subway performance, praises Subway Action Plan
NEW YORK (WABC) -- The MTA on Wednesday announced new statistics that shows subway on-time performance is the best it's been in five years.
MTA Chairman Patrick Foye, Managing Director Veronique Hakim and New York City Transit President Andy Byford announced that on-time performances in March reached 78 percent. That's up from 65 percent last March and the highest since November 2013.
Officials say the number of delays fell 40 percent since March 2018, to less than 38,000.
"These latest performance results are another reminder that investment in the system, and smart operations by dedicated, hard-working professionals, yield real, tangible results," Foye said. "They're also an assurance that the additional funding we'll be getting through central business district tolling will be money well spent - we're showing the potential our team has, and a huge new capital boost will only drive performance up even further."
The MTA also says track fires have significantly decreased, which has contributed to reducing delays. It says new equipment featuring vacuum trains and platform-based mobile vacuums has helped to clear debris at an "unprecedented rate."
Since the mobile vacuum effort began in 2017, the MTA says crews have removed 350,000 bags of dirt and trash weighing over 8.7 million pounds.
"We have a long way to go, but getting back to the basics of both maintenance and operations through the Subway Action Plan and Save Safe Seconds campaign is bringing the subway up to a much better baseline from which to modernize the system," Byford said. "We are working to squeeze every drop of performance we can out of this system and the funds promised by central business district tolling will ultimately allow us to deliver the service that New Yorkers need and deserve."
The MTA says overall service satisfaction increased by more than 6% this quarter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
----------
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
*
