MTA New York City Transit announced today that it is hosting a series of town hall-style public meetings in every borough of New York City this year to discuss the recently announced Fast Forward Plan to modernize the subway system and reimagine bus and paratransit service, with the first meeting planned for Queens at York College on Aug. 21.

“The Fast Forward Plan is a massive undertaking that requires buy-in from all stakeholders – our customers, our colleagues, advocates, the business community, and elected officials at every level of government,” NYC Transit President Andy Byford said.  “The future success of New York City depends upon the success of this comprehensive plan to modernize our transit system, and we’ll be out there in every borough making the case.”

In May, President Byford introduced the Fast Forward Plan: The Plan to Modernize New York City Transit as a roadmap to modernizing all services offered by MTA New York City Transit, including subway service and subway stations, local, express and SBS bus routes, and paratransit options. The plan also sets out to improve accessibility across all services, and addresses how NYCT can improve its organizational structure, corporate culture, and customer service including communication with the public.

The Fast Forward Plan, which was delivered to the MTA Board in a presentation viewable here, includes goals such as installing state-of-the-art new signal and track infrastructure for subways within five years, accelerating accessibility improvements across the subway system by ensuring all customers will be no more than two stops from an accessible station within five years, repairing and improving more than 150 subway stations over five years, putting a new modern fleet of thousands of subway cars and buses into service within five years, and completely redesigning the bus network to meet new ridership demands and population trends. The full plan is available here.

To track and report progress and to hold itself accountable to stakeholders and the public, MTA New York City Transit plans to issue twice-yearly reports on the progress of its Fast Forward Plan initiatives. Since the plan was announced, NYC Transit has moved forward on accessibility improvements at three subway stations, moved forward on redesigning the entire Staten Island express bus network to improve reliability and service, increased off-peak service on bus routes with high growth potential, and launched the quarterly Customer Commitment report to set and track clear goals on customer-focused improvements. Additionally as part of the Fast Forward Plan NYC Transit is implementing a redesign of the Staten Island Express Bus network this week and is embarking on a redesign of bus travel in the Bronx as part of a plan to redesign the bus network throughout the entire city.  In June, President Byford appointed Transit’s first advisor for systemwide accessibility to improve paratransit service and implement accessibility initiatives in the Fast Forward Plan.

President Byford and MTA New York City Transit staff will be presenting the plan at the town hall meetings across the city, speaking to customers and soliciting feedback on how the Fast Forward Plan will affect their commutes and how NYC Transit plans to improve accessibility and customer service. Members of the public are highly encouraged to attend and ask questions to President Byford and his staff.

Information on Tuesday’s town hall in Queens is included below. Subway station signage throughout Queens is also being used to help inform customers about the meeting. The venue is ADA accessible. Members of the public who cannot attend are encouraged to submit questions and feedback online via the MTA website at https://new.mta.info/.

WHERE:

Milton G. Bassin Performing Arts Center at York College

Main Stage Theater

94-95 Guy R Brewer Blvd

Jamaica, Queens

WHEN:

August 21, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m., program begins at 6:30 p. m.

Public speakers must register and will be called in the order in which they sign up.