Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit President Richard Davey appeared live today on FOX 5’s Good Day New York with Rosanna Scotto and Bianca Peters to discuss increased speeds on subways, better signaling, the Bronx Local Bus Network Redesign, and other transit-related topics. 

A transcript of the interview appears below.

Rosanna Scotto: Subway riders will soon be saving more than a New York minute on their commutes.

Bianca Peters: That's right! New York City Transit is speeding up service on multiple lines providing faster service to about 900,000 daily riders  and  lines are all expected to move quicker starting in July.  It’s one of the first improvements actually under the leadership of the new transit president. Richard Davey took over in May and he joins us this morning. First time on Good Day. We're going to – you know – try to take it easy on you, somewhat.  I know Rosanna mentioned…

Richard Davey:  I don’t believe that to be true.

Peters: You shouldn’t – especially with her sitting next to you. “Train Daddy” was taken. Maybe if the speed actually increases – we could go with “Speedy Gonzalez?” We'll see if it fits.

Scotto: Oh! “Speed Daddy.”

Peters: Yeah, “Speed Daddy.”

Davey: I’ve already been called worse this morning, so I’ll take that.

Peters: But two months on the job already. How are things going so far?

Davey: Things are great. I mean, as you mentioned, we're obviously speeding up, you know, our service on the , which we're excited about. We've launched a major redesign of our bus network up in the Bronx, just this past Monday. So a lot of good stuff going on. And then we're getting out, you know, I'm a new New Yorker.  I’m back, you know, from the late 1990’s. So getting back out and listening to customers, getting their feedback, and seeing what ways we can improve. But I'm excited to be here.

Peters: It’s interesting to see about how you're able to speed things up because I know it depends on certain factors, like how fast you get on and off the train. So is the doors just going to open up 0.5 seconds -- you gotta get in, get out. Is that how we're doing it?

Davey: So it's a couple of things.  I mean, it’s a good point. With ridership a little less, there's what we call dwell time in the business, right.  So less people coming on and off, to your point. But we've also improved signage, so operators actually know what the miles per hour speed is. We've improved some signal timers and some track, which allows us to go faster as well. And then we're going to tighten up some of our operations. I think we can actually do better on the other lines beyond the  as well. So more to come.

Scotto: So what happens when more people come back into the system? Will you be able to keep up that speed?

Davey: We think so.  You know, dwell times were a factor but not the only factor.  Again, some of the infrastructure improvements we made, we should be able to stick to those speeds.

Scotto: All right, let's talk about buses. I'm sure that's contingent on traffic, but you are trying to take a few more lanes away from those drivers out there.

Davey: Well, we want to bring them onto the bus – that’s right. A car carries one or two people.  A bus will carry 60 people, or depending, maybe even more so. But certainly, we want to do more bus lanes. We also have bus enforcement cameras. So you know the double-parkers probably also annoy you as well.

Scotto: Oh yes, they do!

Davey:  We love to ticket those folks.  But anyone parked in a bus lane or using a bus lane that isn't a bus needs to find another place to be driving.

Peters: What about crime on the subway? I know that's a very big issue, especially when you're trying to get people back on, the ridership back up. That's an issue. So what are you doing, and when have you’ve seen improvements with that?

Davey: Yeah, I mean, it's the biggest issue by far and working closely with the mayor and the police commissioner, the city – to look at homelessness issues, to look at some of the emotionally disturbed folks that are in our system. And obviously you mentioned crime, you know, working closely with NYPD to identify stations where we would have stepped up patrols. We also have cameras throughout the system as a deterrent or to potentially solve crimes. So we're working very closely with NYPD, but the commitment from the mayor and from the commissioner has been great, and we hope to see some dividends.

Peters: One thing that we did see, maybe about a month ago, Rosanna we played that video of those people surfing on the subway.  And we were like what is going on? Why would you do that, number one.  And two, did you guys, did you find these people, do you find them? What happens?

Davey: Yeah, I mean, obviously a young boy was seriously, critically injured last week surfing. I mean, it's just, it's tragic. I mean, we've had a huge uptick in these incidents this year versus last year. I said it in a public meeting on Monday, imploring and begging if you have kids, please talk to them, and tell them this is dangerous. If you have friends doing this, you know, step up, be a leader and say this is dangerous! That young boy is still in the hospital right now and in critical condition.  So, you know, there are consequences if you do actions like that.

Scotto: So what's causing this like, you know, uptick in subway surfing? Because we're seeing more and more of it.  Is it something that was done on Tik-Tok? Why? Why are kids doing this because we had some relative on the show, of that young boy, who said “Well, this is kids trying to be kids.”

Davey: Yeah, I mean, I think you're right. I think social media has been a big influence. It reminds me of, you know, a few years ago when people were deciding to eat Tide Pods.  That was interesting. I mean, like, to me this activity is just, it just screams you're going to get hurt. So please don't do it. Find something else to do with your time.  To your point, we have conductors making announcements. I was in a train, a couple weeks ago, where they stopped the train and kicked some kids off that were in the back. So our conductors and operators are very aware of this. But again, you know, for folks listening and watching today, please talk to your kids.  This is very unsafe.

Scotto: Let's talk a little bit about congestion pricing. I know that you're not in charge of like the push for congestion pricing, but you would be the beneficiary of congestion…

Davey: You will too if you're a subway rider…

Scotto: I don’t want to be a beneficiary.

Peters: [Laughter]

Scotto:  I think I'm going to be funding it. You know, what I think bothers most of us New Yorkers, is that they're going to be a lot of caveats. You don't get to do it, you don't have to pay it. You don't have to pay it, but you got to pay it.

Davey: Yeah, so you're right. I'm not in charge of it, but you will be…

Scotto: And – by the way – the MTA is a bloated bureaucracy.

Davey: Well, I mean, I might debate that a bit. But let me get back to congestion pricing first.

Scotto: Ok.

Davey: And so, you know, certainly New York City will be the first in the United States once again, leading. You know, this is about climate change, it's about traffic, and it's about funding our mass transit system – for sure. So I can't speak to what, you know, discounts will be made. There's a separate board, as you know, appointed by the mayor and the governor, the legislature that will address, you know, who pays what.  But suffice to say, our budget is contingent upon getting some of these dollars to make investments in our transit system.

Scotto: But you know, the MTA got so much money from the feds after COVID. I mean, like billions and billions. And like it was like a drop in the bucket to you guys.

Davey: Yeah.

Scotto: And that's what concerns us New Yorkers.

Davey: Well, we certainly see, we can certainly be more efficient. I totally agree with that. And we're working on some ways to do that. Or as you said earlier, you know, looking for ways to improve the subway service without spending a lot of money, right. We made some infrastructure improvements and sped up speeds, we want to do more of that. But at the same time, you know, New York, MTA, was the most successful transit system in the United States in collecting fare revenues. About half of our budget was subsidized by fare revenues with only 60% of our riders back, you know, the shoe is going to drop somewhere.  So I have a personal belief that public transportation should be as important as sanitation, as fire, and as police because we're moving, you know, still with, you know, not all of our customers back, we're going to move 5 million New Yorkers today. That's pretty extraordinary. And so I think we should be more efficient, but at the same time, we're going to need assistance from Albany for sure.

Peters: When you talk about that revenue, a big chunk of it is getting pulled away by fare evasion, whether that's on the subway or on the buses. What do you guys do to try to control that?

Davey: Yeah, I mean, so a few things. You know, Janno Lieber, who's the Chair and CEO of MTA, convened a blue-ribbon panel a few weeks ago. They are coming up with some ideas and thoughts. But in the meantime, you know, we have police giving summonses, making some arrests in some cases, for the most egregious…

Peters: Which was wasn’t happening before.

Davey: Well, you know, it was happening before.  I think it dipped during COVID. I also think that customers, you know, we weren’t collecting fares for a period of time, particularly on buses and people got used to that, right.  And then I think there's certainly a segment of New Yorkers who still struggle to pay $2.75 a day, right. And so, getting more folks enrolled in the Fair Fares campaign or the Fair Fares program that the city has, which you know, allows for reduced fares for folks at a certain income level. So I think we have some work to do to advertise these programs, and at the same time, step up our enforcement with NYPD.

Peters: I know…oh, go ahead.

Scotto: No. [Gesturing for Peters to continue speaking]

Peters: I know you redesigned the network within the Bronx, so the bus system, making that quicker.  And you do have plans to do that in all five boroughs. When is that happening here, say in Manhattan? When will all the boroughs expect to see this redesign?

Davey: Yeah, so you know, well we obviously rolled out the Bronx this past week, which has been going very well. We have a public process right now with Queens. And so we actually just announced yesterday we're going to do a bunch more pop-ups, literally just popping up for a couple hours at a bus stop to get customers’ feedback. So we're very much in the thick of it in Queens.  Brooklyn will be next. I expect we'll probably put out a draft plan for public comment by the end of the year. So you know, our hope is to continue to roll these out across the boroughs, as you said, but then also take feedback. If you know, there's something in the Bronx we need to make a change or tweak, we'll do that.

Scotto: So you’ve been on the job for two months.  You’re originally from Massachusetts, have roots here in New York.

Davey: Yes.

Scotto: But major roots in Massachusetts.

Davey: Correct.

Scotto: Will you ever go to a Yankee game?

Davey: I’ve been to Yankee games.

Scotto: Oh, you have. 

Davey: I have.

Scotto: Have you’ve been rooting for the Yankees?

Davey: Well, that’s a different question. But I haven't been to the new Yankee Stadium. I've also been to Mets games, too. And I still am an ‘Old Shea,’ ‘Old Yankee Stadium’ guy.  I mean, in some respects, as you know, I was a New Yorker in the 90’s. I kind of, I'm a little old school in that regard.

Scotto: Well, it's nice to have you here.

Davey: Thank you.

Scotto: Richard Davey, Transit Authority President, we appreciate you coming on and spreading the good word.

Peters: Yeah.

Davey: Thank you.

Peters: Hopefully we didn’t take it to hard on you. 

Davey: Not at all, not at all.  Would be glad to come back, if invited.

Scotto: Yes.  Always.  Thank you.