MTA's depleted workforce has exacerbated transit delays

 

NY Daily News

Train crew shortages are the leading cause of the thousands of subway delays straphangers endure each month, new MTA data shows.

Crew shortages delayed 10,563 subway trains last month, or 18% of the 58,266 subway train delays reported, MTA data show.

A lack of crews accounted for more delays this year than any other cause — including public conduct and crime, which delayed 5,355 trains, or 9% of the total delays, and and signal failures and emergency track repairs, which delayed 2,701 trains, or 5% of the total, the MTA’s data shows.

Delays pegged to crew shortages in April were down from the 16,783 reported in August, when Janno Lieber took over as Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman and launched an aggressive hiring effort.

The MTA employed 7,773 people in April for subway service delivery — mostly train operators and conductors. That’s down slightly from 7,812 in January and about 9% fewer from the end of 2019, when the agency employed 8,562 people in subway service delivery.

One cause of the shortages was a hiring freeze put in place during the first year of the pandemic, a decision MTA leaders at the time defended as a cost-saving measure to keep the agency’s finances above water.

Hiring was also slowed by the agency’s “transformation” team formed in 2019 under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. MTA chief administrative officer Lisette Camilo during a board meeting called that effort a “tornado” that consolidated teams “so quickly that some functions were left without a home.”