Home MTA Politics Gov. Cuomo, in charge of the MTA, announces May 17th return of 24/7 subway service

Gov. Cuomo, in charge of the MTA, announces May 17th return of 24/7 subway service

by Benjamin Kabak

This sign will become a collector’s item as the overnight subway shutdown will end on May 17, Gov. Cuomo announced Monday. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Just over a year to the date since Gov. Andrew Cuomo barred passengers from late-night subways, the man in charge of the MTA announced the return of 24/7 subway service. The trains, which kept running all night every night for the last year, will see the return of passengers between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on May 17th when outdoor dining curfews and pandemic-related capacity limits wind down. It’s welcome news for essential workers who saw their late-night commute times spike and costs increase while they just tried to keep NYC running throughout a pandemic, and it’s a sign that life may be returning to normal sooner rather than later.

For many transit advocates and enthusiasts, the news comes with a great sigh of relief as worry had spread that the governor would use the pandemic shutdown to end 24/7 subway service once and for all. After all, the governor had signaled for years through his MTA Board loyalists that 24/7 passenger service was a luxury for New York rather than the necessity we know it is, and MTA officials had once said the subways were “going to stay closed overnight…at least through the pandemic.”

But once the governor rolled back the four-hour shutdown to two a few weeks ago, we knew logistics and political pressure would eventually win out. The MTA simply cannot park all of its trains securely and kept running empty subways each night throughout the pandemic. Once Senator Chuck Schumer joined the fray, calling this weekend for the return of 24/7 service, it was all but inevitable that Cuomo would cave.

In announcing the restoration of service, Cuomo again trumped the disinfecting regime and baselessly hinted that the subways were responsible for the spread of COVID, his long-time cover for a policy driven by media coverage of homeless New Yorkers sprawled across subway seats and a safety crisis during the worst few weeks of the initial wave of the pandemic.

“COVID-19 is on the decline in New York City and across New York State, and as we shift our focus to rebuilding our economy, helping businesses and putting people back to work, it’s time to bring the subway back to full capacity,” the governor said, taking responsibility for the MTA he controls. “We reduced subway service more than a year ago to disinfect our trains and combat the rising tide of COVID cases, and we’re going to restore 24-hour service as New York gets back on the right track. This expansion will help working people, businesses and families get back to normal as the city reopens and reimagines itself for a new future.”

Despite a heavy security presence, the governor claimed Monday that he felt on safe during his last subway ride on June 8, 2020. (Photo via governorandrewcuomo on flickr)

Yet, the governor also went off script in some head-scratching ways. The governor, who has not ridden the subway since June 8 when he took a 7 train four stops from Court Square to Grand Central, claimed he felt physically unsafe on the subway (despite being surrounded by numerous cops and adoring fans). “As you know, I am a New Yorker. I am smart. I am New York tough. Don’t lie to me and don’t play me as a fool. I’m on the subway. It’s safe. Oh, really? Have you been on the subway? Because I have. And I was scared. Tell your child to ride subway, it’s safe. I’m not telling my child to ride the subway, because I’m afraid for my child,” Cuomo said.

I’ll get into the ins and outs of the ongoing conversation about safety in the subway in an upcoming post, but it’s all part of his feud with the mayor. The numbers show major felonies in the trains are up only slightly but transit workers are getting assaulted at alarming rates and misdemeanors and harassment over goes under- or unreported. MTA officials and Cuomo aides have talked up concerns about subway security while city cops have stressed the massive decrease in crime since last April and the relative safety of the system. The governor, who controls the MTA, should not be adding to the fearmongering, especially as he trumpets New York’s reopening and a return of passengers to overnight subways.

But the governor couldn’t resist plying the subway shutdown as another part of his infamous feuds with the mayor. Bill de Blasio had called for a resumption of normal life in New York City by July 1, but the governor has decided mid-May is the appropriate timeline. The mayor didn’t put up much of a fight on “Inside City Hall” on Monday night, suggesting that his July 1 date was as much a move to goad the governor into acting faster as it was a hard deadline driven by public health figures. But the fight over 24/7 service has its origins in the de Blasio-Cuomo battle as the mayor urged the MTA last April to close terminal stations for easier treatment (and removal) of homeless New Yorkers from the subway before the governor took a sledgehammer to the idea and ended overnight service from 1-5 a.m. entirely.

MTA officials have pledged to continue to clean trains overnight and support mental health services in the subway. Interim NYC Transit President Sarah Feinberg went on the radio yesterday evening and continued the theme. Riders, she said, “continue to worry about crime and harassment in the system because we’re not where we need to be on that yet and so until my customers and my workforce are saying, ‘We feel really good, we feel as safe as we could possibly feel,’ I’m going to continue to bang the drum on it ” This response is all part of the complicated politics MTA officials have been trying to maneuver lately, and I’m confident this won’t be the end of the various debates about homelessness in the subways, the reality and the perceptions of safety or the way the governor uses the MTA as a pawn in his political games against the mayor.

So did anyone learn anything during the 12 months without passenger service? We learned that a lot of New Yorkers were continually surprised to learn that the trains kept running but without anyone on them. We learned repeatedly that Bill de Blasio viewed overnight subway service as a luxury for party-goers and denizens of New York City’s late-night scene rather than as an essential means of travel for late-shift workers who often live far from the city’s job centers but kept New York going through its darkest days this past year. We learned that homelessness drives the conversation but not in ways that produce positive change (as subway bathrooms remain closed and Moynihan Station has no public seating). We learned that the city and state haven’t taken steps to address some of the root causes of why people choose to live in the subways or how to get them more secure housing. And we learned that while the MTA was able to accomplish some work on a slightly accelerated timescale, denying passenger service throughout the system as a whole does very little to increase construction productivity.

We should also learn for the sake of New York City’s future that the governor shouldn’t have the power to simply turn off the subways overnight with flimsy reasoning and no real way to cajole him to turn it back on for over a year, short of his losing influence due to the impact of duel scandals breaking as the vaccine effort ramped up. Yet, as life returns to normal, these lessons will fade, and the overnight subway shutdown will become one of those things we remember now and then about the COVID-19 pandemic that will recede into New York City history. It should be a cautionary tale about politicians who misunderstand the fundamental role transit plays in the city’s success. For now, though, in two weeks, the subway, in all its overnight glory, is back. It’s a welcome step forward indeed.

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13 comments

Larry Penne May 4, 2021 - 7:51 am

This is good news as the Big Apple has always been a 24./7 town. More people work different hours from the old 9 to 5 decades ago.

Riders remain concerned about criminal activity, homelessness and periodic vandalism. This needs to be dealt with if the MTA wants to see a return to pre-COVID 19 numbers. Have the police deal with more important issues than immigrant vendors selling Churro and other products underground. It is time to return to the days when a transit police officer was assigned to ride each train and others patrolled stations. This, along with installation of security cameras on trains and stations might help to reduce the perception of growing crime. Trade in all the former token booth employees who serve as “Station Ambassadors” to help pay for increasing police protection in our subways.

As more riders return, there will also be a potential increase of rats, mice and litter. Suspend the removal of any more trash cans from stations. Consider installing separate cans for recycling newspapers, plastic and glass along with regular garbage. Selling advertising on the side of cans could generate revenue to help cover the costs of more frequent off-peak and late-night collection and disposal.

(Larry Penner — transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for the MTA, NYC Transit, LIRR, MNRR, MTA Bus along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ)

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Doctor Memory May 4, 2021 - 1:43 pm

Before we attempt to solve this problem in the single most expensive way possible (hiring more cops), let’s maybe attempt to get the cops we already pay to patrol the subway to do something other than cluster together in maskless groups at the entrances while staring rigidly at their cell phones, or manning completely useless bag check tables.

And rather than fire the booth staff in order to hire a quarter as many cops, put them in vests and walkie-talkies and have them walk the station.

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Bobbo May 4, 2021 - 4:44 pm

Thanks for this Ben. You’ve been all over this debacle from the beginning. It’s hard to imagine that the players involved could have been any more lazy about creating a narrative to justify the shutdown and yet they have received so little criticism outside of transit advocacy circles. I’m glad 24/7 service will resume and though it’s hard to prove I suspect that the organizing that has taken place in this space over the past x amount of years prevented the shutdown from lasting even longer.

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Doctor Memory May 4, 2021 - 5:18 pm

Honestly I think that if it weren’t for Cuomo’s ongoing sexual harassment scandals, we’d not see the return of overnight service until he left office and maybe not even then: it seemed pretty clear that he was going to run for president and tout “cleaning up the subway” as one of his signature accomplishments.

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Walt Gekko May 31, 2021 - 10:50 pm

More than likely, Cuomo found a way to force the homeless out of the system that is ACLU-proof that does NOT involve closing the subways entirely. Remember, it was the homeless issue and the health hazards they were causing that drove the subways to being closed overnights in the first place.

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Smotri May 9, 2021 - 12:44 pm

When I listen to the traffic and weather updates on news radio stations, what do I hear again? This: subway delays due to the same problems as those that existed before the pandemic, such as signal problems, malfunctioning trains, police ‘activity’. I keep my use of the system to the barest minimum and just last week, a train I was on was filthy, trash-strewn, and with a homeless person sleeping on the seats. If this is the new normal, it’s pretty much the same as the old normal. I’ll pass!

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Guest May 11, 2021 - 11:56 am

Anyone know what sort of things were completed more quickly over this period of overnight closures?

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JJ May 29, 2021 - 12:18 pm

Yesterday was the first day where I felt that the subways were almost back to normal.
Empty popcorn container, spilt coffee and a homeless guy on a Q train</i?

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Walt Gekko May 31, 2021 - 10:48 pm

What I believe really happened was, Cuomo was fearful of reopening the subways at night because of what happened over a year ago when a train operator was killed in the overnight because of the actions of a homeless man with the (2) train that caught fire. Perhaps Cuomo found ways to get the homeless out of the system other than closing it that are ACLU-proof and would not be struck down by a Judge.

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Bolwerk June 1, 2021 - 12:57 pm

Like, uh, housing the homeless?

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Denny April 5, 2023 - 5:29 am

In a subsequent piece, I’ll go into more detail about the current debate regarding tube safety, but it all stems from his dispute with the mayor.
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jerry April 12, 2023 - 5:24 am

I’ll go into more detail about the current argument about tube safety in a later essay, but it all derives from his disagreement with the mayor.

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word wipe aarp November 14, 2023 - 1:49 am

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