Cuomo Declares State Of Emergency For MTA, Calls Transit System’s State Of Decline ‘Unacceptable’

[WestVirginiaRebel]

CBS New York

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Just days after a subway derailment in Harlem, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he will be signing an executive order declaring a state of emergency for the MTA.

The governor made the announcement Thursday at the Genius Transit Challenge Conference, an international competition with a $1 million prize to come up with solutions to improve the transit system’s reliability.

Cuomo said the state of emergency will allow the agency to expedite funding and repairs to what he described as a rapidly decaying and dysfunctional system.

“One of the processes we’re going to expedite is the MTA procurement process. I’ll ask the comptroller and the attorney general for a special team to expedite the process,” he said. “But it will no longer be a tortured exercise to do business with the MTA.”

While he said issues with the transit system have been going on for years, Cuomo said its “current state of decline is wholly unacceptable.”

“The delays are maddening New Yorkers,” he said. “We need ideas outside the box because, frankly, the box is broken.”

In addition, the governor said New York state will commit another $1 billion to the MTA Capitol Plan “so the MTA has the resources they need to get it done.”

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It's just transit as usual...