New York City straphangers have reached their breaking point.
After Tuesday’s A train derailment in Harlem caused 24 hours of hellish commuting for thousands of riders on the A, B, C and D trains, New Yorkers are set to air their grievances to the man officially in charge of the MTA: Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
A rally is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday night outside Cuomo’s New York City office at 633 Third Ave. The governor, according to his schedule, is in Albany today.
Cuomo’s office did not comment on the planned protest, organized by the Riders Alliance, New York Communities for Change and the New York Public Interest Research Group’s Straphangers Campaign.
“Our goal is to send Gov. Cuomo a message loud and clear that six million subway riders are frustrated with what’s happening to the MTA, and we are holding him accountable to really fund and fix the slow-motion crisis of transit we’re experiencing every single day,” Masha Burina of Riders Alliance told Metro.
While bringing former MTA head Joe Lhota back was a step in the right direction, “at the end of the day, it’s Gov. Cuomo’s responsibility to ensure that the agency is well-resourced and equipped to really deal with the day-to-day issues that transit riders face,” Burina said.
Despite its recent issues, including one incident in which F train riders were stranded underground for nearly an hour without light or air conditioning, Burina does not feel the city’s subway system is beyond the point of no return.
“Gov. Cuomo still has the chance to turn this around, but he’s been in office for six years, and he’s had six years to really improve the quality of the subways,” she said. “We hope that all of the recent delays and derailments are a wake-up call that he really needs to come up with a meaningful plan to fix the subway.”
At the time of publication, 85 people have RSVPed for tonight’s protest, with another 374 interested in attending.
