It was a suggestion they might refuse.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted MTA brass Monday for giving the feds the “runaround” over the company’s dealing with of regarding will increase in crime on the New York Metropolis rails.
“MTA giving USDOT the runaround when New York Metropolis grapples with a dramatic uptick in subway assaults is unacceptable,” Duffy mentioned in an announcement.
The DOT head has grown more and more frightened with the state of town’s underground, citing a latest Publish article exhibiting felony assaults skyrocketing — up 19% this 12 months and 66% since 2019.
DOT first shipped a letter off to the MTA in March. The federal transportation company adopted up on Monday with a brand new correspondence demanding to know what was being completed to bolster subway security.
“The harmless victims of those horrific crimes and the day by day commuters who reside in worry of violence deserve higher,” Duffy mentioned. “The MTA ought to present us with the knowledge we have to assess the gaps of their safety technique and security protocols.
“It’s time we restore order on New York’s transit programs — lives are at stake.”
Within the letter, DOT’s Joe DeLorenzo ripped the MTA for being tardy in submitting required stories with the feds concerning main security incidents.
New York Metropolis Transit “is required to submit main security and safety occasion stories to the NTD (Nationwide Transit Database) … no later than 30 days after the date of every reportable occasion,” DeLorenzo mentioned.
The Federal Transit Administration “discovered that NYCT was late with 79% of NTD main incident submittals in 2024, averaging 36.5 days late per report,” he added.
DeLorenzo mentioned future cases of late reporting may result in “ineligibility” to obtain federal funding.
DOT’s March letter requested for information on transit employee assaults, fare evasion, felony exercise, trespassing, together with “subway browsing,” and the usage of federal funds to bolster security and safety.
This week, DOT sought extra specifics on methods to cut back security dangers and requested what number of subway surveillance cameras are working and the way lengthy movies are retained for.
The letter makes no point out of the NYPD, whose officers patrol the subway system.
The MTA dismissed the DOT letter and accused Duffy of enjoying unfastened with the information.
“Subway crime is down, ridership is up, and congestion pricing is working,” mentioned John McCarthy, the MTA’s chief of coverage and exterior relations. “We look ahead to Secretary Duffy wrapping his head across the information.”
NYPD information exhibits that general transit crime is down 3% by means of June 29, in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months — 1,051 incidents to 1,083.
In the meantime, Duffy and the MTA are additionally duking it out over the six-month-old congestion pricing.
Duffy has repeatedly demanded that the MTA droop the controversial $9 congestion toll to drive into Manhattan south of sixtieth Avenue, a program that was backed by the Biden administration.
The MTA, together with Gov. Kathy Hochul, has refused to cave to Washington.
Hochul and the MTA final week applauded the six-month congestion program as a hit, saying auto visitors is down however subway, bus and commuter rail ridership is up — and a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} from toll revenues circulate into MTA coffers to assist fund its capital program.
The MTA sued the Trump administration in February after President Trump and Duffy tried to drag again federal approval for the plan, which went into impact on Jan. 5.
A federal decide in Manhattan granted the MTA a preliminary injunction in Could briefly barring the Trump administration from shutting down the congestion toll.
However a DOT spokesperson mentioned the federal authorities plans to proceed its struggle to have the pricing plan scrapped altogether.
“Within the eleventh hour of his failing Administration, Joe Biden cowardly permitted this absurd experiment that makes Federally funded roads inaccessible to many taxpayers with out giving them a toll-free various,” the spokesperson mentioned.
“We will all agree that the New York Metropolis subway wants fixing, however drivers shouldn’t be anticipated to foot the invoice.”
