NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg appeared live on 1010 WINS with Juliette Papa to discuss the impact of the winter storm on regional public transportation service.  

A transcript of the interview appears below. 

Juliette Papa: Live with us this morning, [NYC Transit Interim] President Sarah Feinberg. Thank you, Ms. Feinberg for joining us.  

Sarah Feinberg: Yeah, Good morning. 

Papa: The wind is howling. What are your biggest challenges so far, this morning, regarding service? 

Feinberg: Well you know I was in the system about an hour, an hour and a half ago and things are pretty good, things are moving along, we're running you know regular service in the city. In the last hour though things are starting to deteriorate. So, you know, we're going to be keeping a close eye on buses, making sure people aren't slipping and sliding around. Obviously if you need to be in the system today, give yourself some extra time, you know, to really only be for essential errands, essential work. And, you know, we're salting and keeping up with it so far, but you know, be careful on the stairs, be careful on the sidewalks. After the morning rush we're going to move a bunch of our trains to the express tracks, so we'll be running local service later today, so folks should keep an eye on that too. 

Papa: Yeah, I was going to ask, what sort of service are you curtailing? Is it a wait and see? Is it hour by hour? How are you looking at that? 

Feinberg: Well, it's both wait-and-see and hour-by-hour. We plan for, for all possibilities so we remain very nimble. But as expected, it's starting to worsen out there right now. So, you know, just in the last hour it's deteriorating a bit. So, I expect that you know we will move as planned from express and local, to just local, and then you know I think the real issue will be later this afternoon as things get really, really, rough, do we need to suspend above ground service. We have not made the decision on that yet, we always plan for it in case we need to, but you know we obviously would love to avoid that. But if things get really bad that's something we'll have to announce later in the day. 

Papa: Right. Is your staff getting in?

Feinberg: Well I'm here and I've seen some others. I mean the most important thing is the men and women of New York City Transit are out all over the city. I mean just yesterday, you know, just in the afternoon where everything was already getting salted and cleaned, people have been shoveling all night, salting all night, so folks are absolutely out and about, and you'll see them if you're out as well. 

Papa: Now I can only imagine the buses trying to navigate these road conditions. I know the articulated buses are off the street. But even with chains, how do you manage that service? Are buses getting there or to their stops in any timely way?

Feinberg: Yeah so far we're in pretty good shape but again you know this is all changing in real time. So, you know, if folks are going out this morning or they're already out, you know, they should not be thinking that things are going to look the same when they start to head home in two hours, four hours, six hours. Things are, things are getting worse. So, you know, buses are doing okay with their chains right now but obviously that's something we keep a really close eye on. 

Papa: And finally, I know during Superstorm Sandy the entire system was shut down. Do you envision that at any point here today, or the next day or two? 

Feinberg: No, no. No plans for that at all. You know, look that was that was a flooding event more than anything else and luckily, this is going to be a snow event, but luckily not a wind event, and hopefully not a flooding event either. So, you know snow can cause some big problems but thankfully there, they're generally temporary and we can clear tracks and keep our switches in a good place and move on. So, I don't see anything like that happening. 

Papa: Very good. Thank you very much for joining us. That is [NYC Transit Interim] President Sarah Feinberg with us this morning.