Wild Week for Mass Transit

It was a whip saw week for NYC Transit, rosy optimism at mid-week and gathering storm clouds–all within one 24-hour period.

In commemoration of National Transit Employee Appreciation Day on March 18, Straus News was invited Harlem’s MTA Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot to observe the President of MTA Transit, Demetrius Crichlow thanking some of the 50,000 NYC Transit workers for their work. Straus News was accorded an exclusive interview riding the M2 bus between the Hale Depot and the 168th Street Subway Station.

By the end of the day, storm clouds in the form of a letter from US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to MTA CEO Janno Lieber signaled yet another battle for the beleaguered agency.

For almost an hour and a half at the Depot that maintains 140 NYC Transit buses, President Crichlow shook many hands, posed for their pictures, and even took a broken bus driver’s mirror and replaced it. Straus had an exclusive interview with him riding the M2 bus between the Hale Depot and the 168th Street Subway Station where he reflected a bullish optimism as he said the system was making progress on a wide range of problems from cirme to fare evasion.

Chrichlow pointed to recent crime stats that say the system is safer than it has been in recent years, but acknowledged some serious crime incidents have shaped public perception of the system. Thanks to increased NY State funding, the subway has increased uniformed presence.

Fare evasion on buses and subways was estimated to have cost the MTA $700 million last year. To address that issue, Crichclow cited the trifecta of installing improved, albeit controversial, turnstiles to prevent back-cocking, 15 second delays on opening emergency doors to prevent, as Janno Lieber called, “The superhighway of fare evasion”, and turnstile fins. Turnstile jumping has dropped fare evasion by 26 percent on subways so far this year, he said. Fare evasion on buses, which was more rampant with up to 40 percent of riders estimated to be skipping the fare, is down by nine percent, he said.

Next topic? Congestion Pricing and the threat of it being halted. Crichlow saw no reason to turn it off; less congestion meant that crosstown buses were running up to 7 minutes faster among other benefits such as less pollution.

The federal contribution to NYC Transit under President Trump was another question. In 2024, the Biden Administration gave the NYC Transit system over $2 Billion to run the nation’s largest transit system, larger than all the other US transit systems combined. Federal funds need to be matched by a city and state share for capital assistance of 20 percent, but the funding has not been announced for 2025 by the Trump Administration.

To the final question of the issue of dogs, strollers, open shopping carts and other aisle blockings on buses, Chrichlow said that new training would done for bus drivers, who will need to assess these issues on a case-by-case basis.

The next facility visited was the entry area of the A/C and 1 train at 168th Street and Broadway. Donning a yellow customer service safety vest (the ones at Hale were orange), he thanked the staff members and visited the Customer Service facility there.

Crichlow then joined other top MTA management at Penn Station to thank their employees as well, with MTA Chair Lieber, Crichlow, LIRR President Rob Free, and Metro North VP Justin Vonashek in the late morning.

At that press conference, Chrichlow observed, “This day is very special for me,” My father is from New York City Transit, my grandfather is from New York City Transit, my brother and nephew are cleaners, so it’s special for me to be able to be out here on Transit Employee Appreciation Day, just to say thank you to employees.”

Lieber, when asked about the 10/21 deadline for the cessation of the ten-week old Congestion Pricing program, was optimistic. He observed, during the Q&A among media representatives, “All that is going to continue. Basic litigation agenda stays, unless one party gets an injunction to change it while you dispute. I don’t think they can get an injunction, that’s been ruled on before.”

He then went on; “We are playing by the rules, we are expecting them to play by the rules. There are benefits for everyone.”

By the evening, the rules changed.

In a late-day email on the same day, United States Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy basically told the MTA to clean up its act, or else. A former four-term congressman from rural Northern Wisconsin, he wrote “The trend of violent crime, homelessness, and other threats to public safety on one of our nation’s most prominent metro systems is unacceptable. After years of soft-on-crime policies, our Department is stepping in to restore order.”

Duffy directed MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber to outline what actions the New York City Transit Authority is taking to restore safety and regain the traveling public’s trust. His missive directed the MTA to provide detailed information about plans to reduce crime, including assaults on customers, addressing violence against transit workers, reduce injuries and fatalities from suicides and “subway surfing,” and to deter fare evasion; a remediation plan by the MTA is to be sent to the Feds by March 31.

MTA Chief of External Affairs & Policy John McCarthy stated, after an NYC City Council meeting on March 19, “We are happy to discuss with Secretary Duffy our efforts, alongside the NYPD, to reduce crime and fare evasion. The good news is numbers are moving in the right direction: crime is down 40 percent compared to the same period in 2020, and so far in 2025 there are fewer daily major crimes in transit than any non-pandemic year ever. Moreover, in the second half of last year, subway fare evasion was down 25 percent after increasing dramatically during Covid.”

So much for March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb.