Group Lists Best And Worst Events For NYC Subways, Buses In 2015
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- As 2015 comes to a close, a transit interest group is sizing up the state of subway and bus service for the year.
The Straphangers Campaign has released its top 10 best and worst lists for the city's public transportation system.
The single most important development this year was an agreement on a five-year, $26 billion plan to invest in the city's transit system, WCBS 880's Kelly Waldron reported.
"In New York we spent over $100 billion buying new subway cars and buses, and fixing stations, and track, and signals, and they've made a huge difference," Gene Russianoff said.
WEB EXTRA: Read The Full List
A new subway station was also added for the first time since 1989.
"We haven't' built a new subway line in New York in 60 years and that compares very poorly to just about everywhere else in the rest of the world," Russianoff said.
Ridership is up, and Rusianoff said riders are still less satisfied and feel they're paying more for less, especially with a fare increase coming in March.
"Among the chief complaints that New Yorkers have about the subways and buses today is that they're too crowded, you know, which is true," Rusianoff said. "We say on really bad days that taking the subway is like surviving the 10 plagues, one of those plagues is definitely severe crowding."
But ridership is something the campaign gives the Metropolitan Transportation Authority credit for on its best of 2015 list, 1010 WINS' Sonia Rincon reported. The subway successfully handled 6.2 million people on Oct. 29 -- the most riders ever.
The MTA did not comment.
