Plans for New York City’s long-overdue subway upgrades have just been announced, starting with tackling overcrowding on trains—by reducing the number of seats.
Following a 30-day audit, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) says it is looking to increase passenger capacity by removing some seats from the subway cars, among other things, to stabilize the reliability of subway services.
Following a train derailment incident in Harlem in June, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the MTA had 30 days to revise its operations and present a plan to address the immediate problems hampering the system’s day-to-day operations.
According to the City of New York, “Over the last five years, subway delays have more than doubled, from around 28,000 per month in 2012 to more than 70,000 per month today. Only 63 percent of trains are now running ‘on-time,’ a drop of more than 15 percent since 2012, meaning longer waits and less-reliable travel times.”
