(The Center Square) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is being urged to veto a “politically motivated” bill that would require the state’s transit agency to continue paying for two operators on subway cars, which critics say will add to costs paid by straphangers.
The state Legislature in June pushed through a bill that would require the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to make permanent a half-century-old law requiring two operators — a conductor and an engineer — on most subway trains. Hochul has until Dec. 31 to sign or veto the measure, which is backed by the state’s public transit unions.
Democratic lawmakers who filed the legislation said keeping two operators on a subway train is a safety and liability issue. In a summary of the bill, lawmakers suggested that cost-cutting by the New York City Transit Authority could lead to legal action against the state from injuries and fatalities caused by the absence of the conductor, which could negate any savings.
“A reduction of service which has an adverse effect on public safety, endangering the lives of passengers while also resulting in further loss of jobs to NYC is irresponsible and should not be allowed,” they wrote.
But critics are urging the governor to reject the move, saying that continuing the two-person requirement would be a setback to the cash-strapped transit agency’s goal of reducing overtime and other labor costs.
“Dictating train operations from Albany is legislative overreach,” New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management said in a statement calling on Hochul to veto the legislation. “How the MTA runs its trains, obviously, should remain with the MTA and not become a contentious political debate.”
A new report by the institute’s Transit Costs Project found less than 6% of the world’s largest 270 transit lines use two or more train operators. Of the 94% that use one or fewer operators, many are completely automated and the trend globally is towards automation as modern signal systems are installed, the report’s authors said.
The report’s authors said making the two-person requirement permanent “would undermine the spirit of the billions of dollars committed to improved signalization and operations” on the public transit system.
“This bill was originally written more than thirty years ago and has no basis in contemporary high-quality transit operations,” the NYU report stated.
The good government group Reinvent Albany also opposes the plan and has echoed calls for Hochul to veto the proposal. In a statement, the groups said the changes are “more an instrument for securing special advantage for a powerful political stakeholder than improving the welfare of the broader, transit riding public.”
“We oppose the bill because it will do nothing to improve subway service, and instead will add costs that will ultimately be paid by transit riders,” the group said.
