Too many New York City subway stations are in disrepair and New York City Transit's repair program is progressing too slowly, said a
Only 51 of the city's 468 stations were free of defects, and just 1-in-4 had most or all of their station components in good repair, DiNapoli said in an Oct. 2 report.
The report comes as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city's transit system, is pitching government and corporate leaders to help cover an estimated $15.2 billion gap in a four-year, $32 billion capital plan MTA officials submitted to state officials last week for approval.
"All 468 stations in the MTA New York City Transit subway system are safe for our 5.8 million daily customers, and the MTA has spent billions of dollars to improve the appearance and structural conditions at stations as well," said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz. "This report does not reflect the improvements being made under the MTA's new component approach, which began in the current capital program and focuses on improving deteriorated components system-wide rather than rehabilitating entire stations."
Over the past three decades, New York City Transit paid $4.5 billion to renovate 241 stations from top to bottom. However, said DiNapoli, the agency did not commit resources to maintain the newly renovated stations, which have deteriorated over time.
New York City Transit estimates that it needs to invest more than $5 billion over the next 20 years to bring the stations to what it considers a state of good repair, a federally established maintenance metric.
Moody's Investors Service assigns an A2 rating to the MTA's transportation revenue bonds, its primary credit. Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's rate them A and AA-minus, respectively.
