Brooklyn – At Friday’s all-day hearing of the New York City Council’s Transportation Committee, Councilman David Greenfield grilled New York City Transit President Thomas Prendergast about the MTA’s mishandling of the December 2010 blizzard, which left nearly one thousand buses stranded across the city and subway service suspended to Southern Brooklyn for four days following the storm. In the Councilman’s district, the D line resumed service Tuesday and the F train came back on-line by Wednesday. The B, Q and N lines, however, remained intermittently off-line until the evening of Thursday, December 30th, leaving tens of thousands unable to take mass transit to work. 

“The residents of my district didn’t have bus or train service for days and struggled, as a result, to get to work and school. My first question is: do you have the decency to apologize to the millions of New Yorkers whose lives that you disrupted?” asked a visibly irritated Greenfield. Mr. Prendergast responded by acknowledging that serious mistakes were made during the storm and apologized for the very fist time as to the impact the MTA’s errors had on New Yorkers.

Councilman Greenfield then focused on why the MTA waited until one hour after the blizzard started on December 26th to move to a “Level Four” action plan, the agency’s response for the most severe weather conditions. Mr. Prendergast responded by saying that the MTA’s weather service did not provide the agency with advance information about the severity of the storm. Councilman Greenfield responded that the claim was “unbelievable,” as anyone with access to radio, newspapers or television would have known, as early as Friday, December 24th, that a severe storm was coming.

Mr. Prendergast and other representatives from the MTA did not bring written testimony to Friday’s hearing and, unlike officials from the Mayor’s Office who provided a multi-point plan for addressing failures in storm response, did not seem to have any concrete solutions to the problems that plagued the agency throughout the December blizzard. “In our hearing on Monday, while we were not satisfied with all of the city’s responses, a fifteen point plan was presented to ensure that what happened in December never happens again,” pointed out Councilman Greenfield. “Where is your plan?” he asked. Mr. Prendergast responded that the MTA was “working on a plan,” but could not provide a timeline or details for that plan.

Councilman Greenfield, who has previously pressed the agency to install GPS on their buses to prevent bus bunching, where multiple buses arrive at a bus stop at the same time, again asked if the agency would install GPS to ensure better tracking of buses in the event  they become stuck or otherwise disabled. Prendergast said that the agency is “trying to move in that direction.” When pressed by Councilman Greenfield for a more concrete response, Prendergast replied that the MTA would respond in writing as to the timeline for GPS installation.

Questioning at the hearing continued for 5 hours, illuminating a fundamental lack of communication and planning by the MTA.  Prendergast admitted that the MTA made countless errors, but highlighted four serious ones: 1. Not putting in place a “Level Four” action plan until the storm was already underway; 2. Not having an MTA command center to coordinate response; 3. A fundamental lack of communication and decision-making at the highest levels of New York City Transit and; 4. Losing track of stuck trains and buses, including an A train in Queens that was stuck overnight with hundreds of passengers and MTA personnel. The final admission was a shocking one and seriously calls into question the ability of the MTA to sufficiently manage transit operations in the City of New York.

“I was appalled by President Prendergast’s admission, in response to Chairman Jimmy Vacca’s questioning, that the MTA simply ‘forgot’ about the hundreds of passengers and MTA personnel left abandoned overnight, without food or access to restrooms, on a stuck A train in Queens,” said Councilman Greenfield. “Sadly, I am not surprised. The MTA is broken. I believe that in order to keep this city moving forward we have to stop accepting excuses and overhaul the structure of the MTA,” concluded Councilman Greenfield.

(YWN Desk – NYC)