MTA head Lhota joins retired Assemblymember Brennan to discuss transit crisis
Independent neighborhood democrats host discussion in Brooklyn Heights
In the best tradition of Daniel entering the lion’s den, one-time Republican mayoral candidate and current MTA head Joe Lhota appeared before the Independent Neighborhood Democrats at St. Francis College to explain the origins of and possible remedies for the city’s growing transit crisis.
“This past spring, there was pretty much collapse in the transportation system — the number of delays, the number of breakdowns, problems with the signal system — and it became obvious to me very quickly what had happened.” Referring to the fiscal crisis of 2008, Lhota pointed out that revenues declined sharply: “The MTA had to make certain decisions. And they did it by cutting back on services, cutting back bus routes and they also cut back on maintenance on a system as old as ours.”
Since July 2017, Lhota continued, the priority became getting the system fixed. “But everyone in Albany, and here in New York City, everyone agrees that the MTA needs a new source of funding.” Lhota described several alternative methods of raising money, including “congestion pricing,” charging motorists for entering Manhattan from, for example, FDR Drive at 42nd Street. “With the current technology,” he said, “it could be done quite easily.”