Sixty Days Into MTA's 'State Of Emergency,' Critics Wonder What Happened To Review Plans
Sixty days ago Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo took to the stage of the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan and announced a top-to-bottom review of the calcified organization that runs the subway system.
Within 30 days, MTA chairman Joe Lhota, a Cuomo appointee, would create a “reorganization plan for the MTA,” and nothing would be sacrosanct, the governor said, declaring a "state of emergency." As if redesigning a bureaucracy that employs 70,000 people within 30 days weren’t enough, Cuomo said Lhota would also undertake a capital review within 60 days, examining the beleaguered authority's physical infrastructure from subway cars to signals.
That was June 29th, two days after a subway derailment in Harlem injured 34 people. Sixty days later, the MTA says it has delivered on both those promises. Observers aren’t so sure. . .