Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
MTA Chairman To Staff: 'We Aren't Very Good Right Now'
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Jul 12, 2017
Modified Jul 16, 2017
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
MTA
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Jul 12, 2017
Modified Jul 16, 2017
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The MTA doesn't blame you for blaming them.
In a staff memo circulated to MTA employees, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota acknowledged that riders had plenty to be frustrated about, and conceded that, "Today, no one thinks of that MTA as either efficient or effective."
"Our customers are right; we aren't very good right now," he wrote in the memo, obtained Tuesday by the research organization Transit Center. "We're not providing the quality service that they deserve."
The new transit boss, who led the MTA in 2012 but resigned to run for mayor against de Blasio, also spoke glowingly about the agency's past, calling them "the brightest light" during Hurricane Sandy, and adding that Cuomo's state of emergency should be viewed as an opportunity.
And buried in the memo is a bit of (potentially good?) news: Lhota wants the MTA to build a dashboard with metrics that allow New Yorkers to track how the agency is doing. "It will not just be a tool of the MTA, but a report card to the public on our progress," Lhota wrote.
The memo doesn't elaborate on what that would entail, and an MTA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the research organization Transit Center has a couple recommendations:
Hopefully the dashboard will include information on key projects to improve subway service, such as ongoing and pending signal projects, subway car procurement as well as elevator outages. The dashboard should rely on the kind of legible, rider-focused performance metrics we've championed, such as excess journey time. Additionally, the dashboard will be monumentally incomplete if it omits performance of city buses.
The memo also notes that Lhota will be conducting an organizational review "in the next 30 days" (17 days left in that deadline, per his original promise), which will also examine faster ways to replace obsolete signals. According to a report released last month by the Independent Budget Office, the majority of signal updates and repairs scheduled to begin this year are currently delayed, and only one update in the current capital plan is expected to be completed by 2018.
You can read the full memo here.
Tagged
Cuomo
joe lhota
MTA
subway
subway repairs
we the commuters
Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Brooklyn school dean says MTA officers assaulted him over a $3 bus fare he says he paid
Kyle Taylor, a dean at Mott Bridges Academy, says he made a legal bus transfer.
By
Carol Chen
Published Oct 14, 2026 at 4:51 p.m. ET
National Grid customers in NYC will see higher gas bills this winter
Due to higher delivery fees, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island customers will likely see their bills increase by an average of $87 this winter.
By
Rosemary Misdary
News
National Grid customers in NYC will see higher gas bills this winter
Due to higher delivery fees, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island customers will likely see their bills increase by an average of $87 this winter.
By
Rosemary Misdary
Bruce Blakeman joins Gov. Hochul in support for expanding NY rape law
By
Jon Campbell
2 men accused of stabbing off-duty NYPD detective in the Bronx plead not guilty
By
Charles Lane
and
Brittany Kriegstein
Man who pushed his baby and her mother from a Bronx balcony arraigned from psych ward
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .