Statement by Ellyn Shannon, PCAC Associate Director,
Welcoming Andy Byford as President of New York City Transit
At the Transit and Bus Committee
MTA Headquarters, 2 Broadway, New York, NY 10004
January 22, 2018
Good morning and welcome President Byford! It feels very good to be able to say that. I am Ellyn Shannon, the Associate Director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee (PCAC) to the MTA. Created in 1981 by the New York State Legislature, PCAC’s mission is to advise the MTA on behalf of its public transit users on items such as the formation and implementation of MTA policy and holding the MTA Board and management accountable to the riders.
As advocates, we believe that transparency is the best way to get stakeholders on-board for the work that must be done to turn the subway system around.
Our New York City Transit Riders Council has worked closely with New York City Transit staff to develop the recently released Subway Performance Dashboard; we love the end product. It serves as a great tool for understanding subway performance. We hope you’ll keep it in mind when you review the Elevator and Escalator report that will be presented to this Committee next month. Now we’d like to see Transit staff create an Elevator and Escalator dashboard as a means of improving transparency on this very important issue.
We pushed hard for creating some of the new metrics found in the dashboard, such as the major delay metric. Which is now allowing us to finally understand, which lines are most affected by major delays and these huge rider disruptions.
We are using these new metrics to assess the performance of the Subway Action Plan. We believe that the integrity of every metric NYC Transit reports plays a vital role in garnering the trust of the riders.
Our greatest hope is that you will be given the leeway to do the job you were brought here to do, which entails leading our remarkable subway and bus system back to being the pride for all New Yorkers.
Thank you and we look forward to working with you.
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