Subways

City Council members are speaking up about the runaway price tag of subway infrastructure in New York City, pressing the MTA to rein in capital construction costs that outstrip those of peer cities across the globe.

Starting Wednesday, transit riders will be able to see for themselves how their subway lines are performing, when the MTA launches an online dashboard showing how much time riders lose due to trains that are off-schedule.

Compared to its international peers, the MTA's capital construction costs are nothing short of outrageous. So with Governor Cuomo asking for more money from New York City to fix the subways, it's understandable that City Council members want to know whether they'll be getting good bang for their buck. But at a hearing earlier today, MTA Managing Director Ronnie Hakim couldn't explain the MTA's cost problem, let alone how to fix it.

New MTA chair Joe Lhota is promising a public-facing dashboard that functions as a "report card" on the agency's performance. Here's what would make it a useful tool to improve accountability and build trust with riders.

Congestion is growing and transit ridership is falling in NYC. But at a moment when transit desperately needs smart stewardship, the city's political leaders, especially Governor Andrew Cuomo, are nowhere to be found.

Subway trains are breaking down more frequently. Is it a sign of neglect of basic maintenance or a normal fluctuation in the lifecycle of trains? The MTA doesn't release enough information to provide a solid answer.

Here's a really cool project years in the making: Queens native and OpenPlans alum Anthony Denaro put New York City subway and bus lines on one map.

DOT's "New York City Mobility Report" [PDF], released earlier this week, is the agency's first overview of NYC transportation trends in three years. As the number of people and jobs in the city has grown prodigiously in the past five years, DOT reports, the subway system and, increasingly, the bike network have allowed more New Yorkers to get where they need to go. But there are signs of strain -- bus ridership is declining and bus speeds are slowing, and traffic congestion in the Manhattan core is rising.

With New York City's population swelling to a record size, subways and bikes now account for about 700,000 more trips each day than 16 years ago, according to a new report from NYC DOT [PDF]. Car trips into the Manhattan core, meanwhile, are declining, but so is citywide bus ridership.