In Rebuttal to Trump Official, M.T.A. Says Subway Is Getting Safer
The New York Times
In response to the transportation secretary’s disparagement of the subway system, transit officials said that felonies were way down and fare evasion was dropping.
In response to the Trump administration’s portrayal of the subway system as lawless, New York transit officials on Wednesday shot back: Crime is down, fare evasion is falling — and the nation’s largest transit system deserves far more money.
Janno Lieber, head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the agency would be taking “a very professional, fact-based approach” to the federal government’s demands last week for a list of statistics on transit crime, aiming to show that crime underground is the lowest it has been in more than a decade.
Still, a surge in unpredictable attacks in the subway remains troubling, M.T.A. officials acknowledged, and concerns about crime remain an obstacle to getting some riders to return. A January rider survey showed that a little more than half of subway customers — 56 percent — say they feel safe on trains.
New York transit officials have remained defiant weeks into their standoff with federal officials, which began when Washington demanded the halt of congestion pricing last month. When New York refused, the skirmish escalated, with Sean Duffy, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, threatening to defund transit projects, if the state did not provide the crime stats. Over the weekend, he referred to the subway system as a “shithole,” WNBC-TV reported, while repeating his demands.
A formal response to the secretary is in the works, but the transit authority wanted to preview the information, Mr. Lieber said at a board meeting on Wednesday.
“We’re going to stay coolheaded because the facts are on our side,” Mr. Lieber said.
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