Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Chair and CEO Janno Lieber made a live appearance on NY1 Mornings on 1 with Jamie Stelter and Shannan Ferry to discuss subway safety and other transit related issues.  

A transcript of the interview appears below 

Jamie Stelter: Despite ridership being up somewhat on the subways, averaging about 3.6 million riders a day, the levels still remain well below pre-pandemic levels. But if commuters are going to continue using the subways, it has to be safe for everyone. So, as we've been reporting over the weekend, the mayor held a two-day summit on public safety in the transit system and across the city. The summit included lawmakers, district attorneys, law enforcement officers, and many others. The new public safety plan will include adding 1,200 extra officers over time on the subway, installation of additional security cameras, and the city will open two psychiatric units to treat the mentally ill. Let's discuss all the public safety issues. This is MTA Chairman CEO Janno Lieber. Good morning. Thank you for coming in this morning. 

Janno Lieber: Good to be with you Jamie and Shannan.

Stelter: It has been a long few, I would say weeks months, maybe a year it feels like it is one incident after the next. Do we feel confident in this three-point plan that the mayor has introduced?

Lieber: Absolutely.  And that was the mayor and the governor. The governor has been on transit issues since day one. I have to speak about it because I work for the state. The MTA is a state authority. We obviously,  the mayor, you know, he is an ex-transit cop. He's passionate about this issue. He rode the subways over the weekend. He and I were texting about what we saw – each of us on the subways. So we're both subway riders.  We want to make the system feel safe. New York only works if transit works. More than half of New Yorkers don't have access to a car. They can't afford a $50 Uber. It has to be safe, it has to feel safe. With the governor added to this mix, in addition to the cops, she is on cameras, that's been her issue. She is the one who stood with me a couple of weeks ago to announce we are putting cameras inside all the subway cars.  We've got the cameras inside now, in addition to the 10,000 cameras in the stations, and here's the big move that was in that plan over the weekend: we're going to start to deal with the problem that – New Yorkers understand – which is that we have too many folks who are struggling with serious mental illness in the public space, especially with the subway. And New Yorkers are compassionate. They feel for these people, but they also can be scary. And when you see someone who's acting out, who's yelling or screaming, who's getting, you know, who's getting physical, you want them to be dealt with. The governor came up with a plan where we're going to open a new psychiatric facility, a brand-new psychiatric facility for the severe mental illness cases.

Stelter: And how are you going to get people to go and use those specific interventions?

Lieber: Here’s the difference. We're going to retrain all the clinicians who are out there. They have the power to say, but you need to come inside because you can't look after yourself -- or – if there is evidence of violence.

Ferry: Well, what about the cops as well, because that's a big part of that. How realistic or long term is it to put these cops on overtime duty to patrol the subways?

Lieber: Listen, you know, I believe in the New York Police Department.  It is the finest force in the world. This is why people become cops. Moments when there is real anxiety and concern about safety in the city. They stepped up historically. We are so far below when I grew up in New York, in the 70s or even the late 80s, we're so far below that. But I think the police force and the professional law enforcement officials know this is a key moment. And I think that they are going to step up.  I have confidence.

Ferry: Well PBA President Pat Lynch wasn’t too happy to hear about that.

Lieber: Listen, you know, there's going to be dialogue always with the union about working conditions. But I'm confident in the motivation of the cops, and what we're doing is,  in addition to the fact that they're on the platforms, on a train, something I asked for a long time, the cops to be visible on the platform and on the trains. But we're going to be making announcements all the time, so the riders know that they're there, that if something – god forbid happens – that’s not good on a train or on a platform. By the way, with all the cameras we got, were catching everybody. Bad guys know they're going to be caught if they're going to do stuff in the subway.

Stelter: All of that is after the fact. I had one of my producers print out; I just said give me the latest violent attacks that have happened. It used to be that if you rode the subway late at night, on a weekend, it was like, okay, well, you're asking for trouble. Now, some of these things: 2:30 in the afternoon, there's another 11:30 in the morning. It's like they go on and on and on. And they're young people and these people that are unprovoked.  This pushing - shoving incident, the mother told the New York Post that now her son doesn't want to leave his house. He's suicidal and this has now changed the entire course of his life. This is a guy just going to do a waiter job. Devastating.

Lieber: Absolutely. We cannot we can't put up with situations like this.  But you have to you have to remember that a lot of these people are clearly mental illness cases. And we need to attack that problem. For too long, we've taken a voluntary approach in every case. There are some cases where people can't look after themselves and they have evidence and inclination of violence.  We need to deal with those folks separately. I think that the governor is broken through on a new approach. As she says, it’s cops, cameras and care.  And the care part has not been here. We're gonna get some of these people out of the public space. It is disproportionately impacting the experience of public space in New York, that there are a lot of severely mentally ill people out there that we can't make it totally voluntary forever. We have to be compassionate.  But they need to get help.

Ferry: It's something that we will continue to talk about and debate what goes on from here and how do we get people back in the subway.  I mean, just this morning, it's something Jamie and I were discussing. Another issue was getting that reliable service. There was a third rail loss of power and that means people who are already a little skeptical to get on the subway are now waiting on those platforms a little bit longer and saying: you know what, I am going to hop in an  Uber or I am going to go do something else.

Lieber: Well Shannon, first off, all services are back to normal. It happened a couple hours ago. So when you say – the big picture here – listen.

Ferry: But there are still extensive delays from the loss of power.

Lieber: Every time there's a problem in the subway, we're on it. And for on time performance – way up.  Service delivery – way up. We have hired hundreds and hundreds of operators. Service has gotten better. We're not hearing from our riders, that service is the issue. The issue, as you guys have pointed out, is the sense of safety and security of the system and we're attacking that, too.  Ridership has been going up. We're gonna hit 4 million very soon, any day now. And just a year ago, think of where we were a year ago.  New mayor, the governor only a couple months in, we were at 2 million. We’re pushing 4 million now. New York is coming back. But we have to reinforce people’s sense that this is the public space that they own –  not a few criminals or people who are struggling in the public space with their mental health issues.

Stelter: Before we let you go, let's talk about the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy coming up at the end of this week. You were saying that there have been a lot of improvements since then.

Lieber: Yeah, absolutely. Listen, it's mass transit in New York, so there's always new issues. One thing that we have been a hacking away at for the last 10 years is to make sure that we never have a Sandy type event that shuts down the subways – ever again. And that means that we've been installing subway submarine doors on a lot of stations that are close to the coast, filling up all those grates, getting a lot of technology in effect, fixing Coney Island Yard and 207th Street, which are right next to the water. Six to seven billion dollars of investment already. We got a little bit more to go; huge improvements. Now – coastal resilience is one thing; we're there.  Now – we need to also complete the effort to make sure that these climate change driven flash flooding events don't shut us down. We're working with everybody to make sure we also deal with that new challenge to the system. Different than coastal resiliency, it is not saltwater, so it doesn't take everything out, but we have to deal with it.

Stelter: Big tasks ahead of you.

Lieber: Listen, we have a lot going on. New York is about making the public space work; making the subways feel inviting and safe. This is New York. We’re not giving up. We are going to keep going until we get it right. 

Stelter: And we are with you. MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, thanks for coming in this morning.

Lieber:  Thank you Jamie and Shannan.