New York MTA Reports Service, Ridership Improvements

"The MTA has been taking steps to improve its infrastructure and performance over the last few years—and those efforts are, improbably enough, paying off," reports Valeria Ricciulli.

"This week, the transportation authority announced that subway on-time performance continues to improve and that ridership is up across the city’s subways, buses, Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), and Metro-North," explains Ricciulli.

"The MTA attributes these improvements to the Save Safe Seconds initiative, the Subway Action Plan, and the Train Speed and Safety Task Force, among other things. But one of the main factors that contributed to improving on-time performance was reducing track debris fires (which are down by 31 percent since last year), clearing platforms at a faster rate with new 'mobile vacs' that move around picking up trash, the transportation authority said."

The positive performance figures emerge in the context of the MTA's recent proposal for $51.5 billion in capital investments, as well as a report that NYC Transit President Andy Byford briefly resigned from his position earlier this month before reconsidering.