MTA touts increase in on-time subway performance
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The MTA says its recent wave of improvements is turning around the New York City subway system.
NYC Transit President Andy Byford says weekday on-time performance was 81.5% in June, the highest it's been since August of 2013.
Byford says there have been at least 10,000 fewer subway delays for 10 consecutive months.
Officials say the Subway Action Plan launched by Governor Andrew Cuomo and then-MTA Chairman Joe Lhota has provided a surge of additional union personnel, outside contractors, and new tools and methods for the maintaining and improving the system.
They say that overall, subway performance continued its steady improvement in June, with every weekday metric better than both June 2018 and the average of the past 12 months.
On-time performance has continued to improve, they say, and major incidents have declined to the lowest number since records have been kept.
"More than six months of sustained improvements show that our Subways team's emphasis on the basics of service and our push to make strategic, institutional changes at every level through the Subway Action Plan is getting solid results that we are proud of," MTA Chairman Patrick Foye said. "And with the passage of Central Business District Tolling through the leadership of Governor Cuomo, the best is yet to come."
Oficials said that during the Subway Action Plan, MTA works and outside contractors have:
--Cleared more than 55,000 street grates to prevent ingress of litter and leaves that build up on the track, causing fires and clogging drains
--Sealed more than 6,300 leaks to prevent water ingress that causes power and signal problems, deterioration of track and other equipment resulting in unplanned service changes, delays and track fires
--Installed 51 miles of Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) across the system, replacing jointed rail, which is more prone to rail defects that delay trains
--Repaired almost 25,000 minor track defects that if not repaired can cause delays
--Performed 79 miles of track rail grinding to improve ride quality and reduce defects
--Repaired or rebuilt more than 1,700 signal components, drastically reducing the backlog of issues that can disrupt service
--Completed 1,200 priority maintenance and repair tasks to improve reliability of signal and switch equipment
--Rebuilt and modernized more than 300 signal stops to be moisture proof and avoid service interruption
--Conducted a comprehensive inspection of door components across all fleets
--Made maintenance practices more efficient so cars can be put back into service more quickly
--Repaired door control units on over 1,000 cars in our oldest fleets to improve reliability of this critical component that cause 40 percent of car breakdowns
--Overhauled more than 2,600 cars in an accelerated major car overhaul program, where the overhaul cycle changed from 7 years to 6 years
--Conducted a deep cleaning initiative of over 2,500 car interiors and over 2,700 car exteriors
--Conducted a deep cleaning initiative of over 100 subway stations
--Enhanced 130 stations via a focused cleaning and repair campaign led by Group Station Managers
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