New York’s subway is hot garbage that’s getting hotter and garbagier by the day. So why don’t the people who oversee the system realize this? That is because those government employees, who are partially responsible for its impending breakdown, don’t actually ride it.
Many executives and board members of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the state agency running the subway into the ground, barely used their free MetroCards, according to a damning New York Daily News analysis. Two people even used it only one and two times in the last two years.
The Daily News requested the names and frequencies of MetroCard use for 26 MTA officials, including the executive director, chief of staff, NYC Transit acting president and board chairman, using a Freedom of Information Law request. The agency released the frequencies of each official, but would not reveal the names on the cards.
Nine officials only used their cards between 12 and 85 times within two years, and five others rode an average of once a week.
The report comes a week after Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency on the MTA, and simultaneously being confused as to why riders are tweeting “nasty things about him.”
Without actually riding it, Cuomo and MTA officials cannot witness how the subway is literally falling apart. A train derailed in Harlem earlier this month leading to injuries and trauma for riders. Virtually every line is delayed regularly. People have been trapped in pitch black darkness underground for 45 minutes.
Officials not riding the subway isn’t just disrespectful to everyday New Yorkers, it’s dangerous.