More Buses and Trains Planned to Lure Riders (Published 1992)
- ️Thu Aug 06 1992
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- Aug. 6, 1992
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As part of a new strategy to turn around the falling ridership on New York City's public transportation system, the Transit Authority is planning to increase the number of subway trains on certain lines and start new bus service beginning in September.
The changes are the first concrete steps in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's initiative, proposed in June, to intensify customer service and improve the transit system's infrastructure.
The board of the transportation authority, the Transit Authority's parent agency, is expected to approve the changes at its meeting on Aug. 14. They would be phased in over a year and the hope is that the new strategy will build back ridership, which since 1989 has fallen by 9.6 percent for subways and by 6.8 percent for buses.
"We're committed to aggressively getting new ridership," said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman, Peter E. Stangl. "We're going to market it hard and see whether it works."
In April, the transportation authority proposed what it called its "Fare Deal" strategy. Instead of cutting service to narrow a projected budget shortfall of about $300 million by trimming expenses, the authority decided to concentrate on increasing ridership.
"It's an if-you-run-it-they-will-ride-it idea," explained Jared Lebow, a Transit Authority spokesman. 'A Complete Turnaround'