The pinnacle of the Transport Employees Union is asking the feds to alter a rule and permit federal funding for use for the MTA’s operational bills — like employee salaries and a few security and upkeep initiatives.
The letter comes as Duffy has threatened to revoke federal funding for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority altogether over false claims that the crime fee in New York Metropolis’s subway is on the rise.
“The TWU strongly agrees with the concerns listed in your March 18 letter,” Samuelsen wrote to Duffy. “Unfortunately historic federal prohibitions and onerous bureaucracy are hindering large cities like New York from improving public safety.”
Federal guidelines prohibit transit businesses in city areas of greater than 200,000 individuals from spending so-called federal “formula” grants on operational bills.
“As you know from your work maintaining safety across our air, rail, maritime and road systems, capital investments are necessary but can only take us so far,” Samuelsen added. “Safety depends on significant investments in skilled workers to operate, police and maintain our transportation systems.”
The NYPD officers that patrol the subway system are metropolis cops, not paid for out of the MTA’s coffers — and up to date surges of police within the subway system and their additional time pay have been funded by town and state governments.
However different security and safety initiatives — together with the unarmed guards tasked with stopping fare evasion at subway exit gates and the transit staff who set up and preserve the surveillance digicam community all through the subway system — are paid by the MTA’s operational funds.
The MTA and TWU joined collectively final 12 months in an effort to push laws by Congress that might have allowed federal formulation funding for use towards service and safety enhancements within the subway.
The payments by no means made it out of committee.
