MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye appeared live today on 1010 WINS with Juliet Papa to discuss the impact of the winter storm on regional public transportation service.
A transcript appears below.
Juliet Papa: Mass transit is back up and running and live with us on the line this morning MTA Chairman Pat Foye. Good morning, thank you for being with us. How is it going this morning, getting the systems back up and operating, and are they?
Patrick Foye: Morning Juliet. The answer is yes. MTA employees before, during and after the storm have done a fantastic job. Above ground service on the subways resumed at 5 a.m. when the subway got out of the 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. closure we put in place on May 6. Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road service began around 4 a.m. This morning service is good. Buses obviously have been running 24/7 on reduced service throughout the storm and that continues right now. There are scattered delays on the Hudson Line of Metro-North and there's a water main break, street level water main break that the City of New York is attending to that's affecting service at the 96th Street station on the . And that may or may not be storm related, but services come back and the MTA workforce frankly has done a fantastic job in one of the most severe snow events in New York City history.
Papa: Yes. Well in fact you did have a train that got stuck yesterday, right before the deadline when you were cutting off the above ground service. What kind of challenge does that present?
Foye: Well it was quite a challenge, and actually Juliet I think it's a confirmation that we made the right decision yesterday to close down the above grade service on the subways and on Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road for that matter. Because it's clear given the severity of the snowfall and drifting, that there would have been a significant number of additional trains caught up in snow and snow drifts on the subways. So, we had that one event on the which occurred before the above ground shut down of service went into effect. MTA forces responded rapidly. There were no injuries, no one requested medical attention happily, and it was the only event, and confirmation that we made the right call yesterday.
Papa: Yeah, when do you think you see full service restored? Whether it's you know, LIRR or you know Metro-North and buses on the streets?
Foye: Well, Long Island Rail Road is operating on weekend service. And yesterday and today you know scattered delays on the Long Island. Metro-North is operating at its reduced level of service with those Hudson Line delays that I mentioned. Buses are operating at 75% of service and subway services, good this morning with the exception of the water main break and its aftermath at the 96th Street stop on the west side for the trains.
Papa: Yeah. So, do you see full service anytime soon perhaps tomorrow or later in the week? Where do you see that?
Foye: Yeah, I think tomorrow we're likely to be running full, you know full pandemic service across the system. There are obviously additional snowfall amounts that are expected later in the day, not quite the extent of yesterday and we are planning for, you know, planning for additional snow and hope that the groundhog in Pennsylvania is wrong.
Papa: I was just going to ask you, six more weeks of winter. What does that mean to you?
Foye: Well, I think we got our six weeks of winter yesterday, right? And, you know, we're hoping for sunnier and warmer days ahead.
Papa: All right, good luck to you. Thank you so much for joining us during a very busy time. That was MTA Chairman Pat Foye with us live. Always a pleasure. In the meantime, thank you.