Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News joining us now.
Speaker 2: We mentioned the wonderful snow removal above ground, there is
Speaker 2: beneath the ground as well on the bus as well. JOHNA.
Speaker 2: Lieber joined us now MTA chare and CEO here in
Speaker 2: New York City. John, I remember years ago in Boston
Speaker 2: the snow, the salt, the slush drifted down and basically
Speaker 2: shut down the large system of Kenmore Square. Are you
Speaker 2: and your team worried about major breakdowns just because of
Speaker 2: the harshness of this or is it just an emergency
Speaker 2: as usual?
Speaker 1: You know, Tom, It's an interesting point. Rob was talking
Speaker 1: about the advances in forecasting. The advantage of that is
Speaker 1: that allows us to do a ton of preparation, and
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand MTA workers labored over the weekend and into
Speaker 1: today to make sure we could put on service. And
Speaker 1: we were able to maintain bus and subway and Metro
Speaker 1: North and Long Island Roilroad commuter service right through the storm,
Speaker 1: with delays, with imperfections, but we were able to operate,
Speaker 1: which is not always the case in the past, and
Speaker 1: that's because of preparation. And our concern now is we're
Speaker 1: operating a full Monday morning commute, which is amazing. But
Speaker 1: you know, the obviously with a risk of thaw and icing,
Speaker 1: that presents new problems. So we're moving on and how
Speaker 1: we manage the impacts of the storm. Just as you suggest, Jeneral,
Speaker 1: give us the status of the subway and the bus
Speaker 1: system as it is right now and kind of how
Speaker 1: do you think it might play out over the next
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. Well, here, the bottom line is we're
Speaker 1: operating service on all subway lines, on all bus lines.
Speaker 1: There are some delays because partly because we have crews
Speaker 1: that live in New Jersey and they're not able to
Speaker 1: get in because New Jersey Transit is out of business
Speaker 1: for today.
Speaker 2: Shame there in New Jersey a little bit.
Speaker 1: Now, listen, everybody's different. We were able to survive this
Speaker 1: storm with it, I guess I said, fifteen thousand people
Speaker 1: doing a ton of work. But the bottom line is
Speaker 1: we're running. We're running every line. Metro North is running,
Speaker 1: you know, five hundred and fifty trains today, Long Island
Speaker 1: Road running seven hundred and fifty trains, both of them
Speaker 1: on kind of robust holiday schedules or weekend schedules. Check
Speaker 1: your if you're listening, MTA commuter check your train time
Speaker 1: app or your MTA website MTA dot info for specifics.
Speaker 1: But we're running service uh and we're ready to We're
Speaker 1: ready to keep that going as we go forward in
Speaker 1: the week.
Speaker 2: General persistent cold is in the forecast here heard from
Speaker 2: Rob Carolyn. Maybe for the week, maybe two weeks of
Speaker 2: well below average temperatures. How does that impact your system?
Speaker 1: Listen, you know when you're ice is a is the
Speaker 1: enemy of good service on rail, right, So you have
Speaker 1: to have run your de icing trains constantly, make sure
Speaker 1: that the switches don't actually freeze up, and we have
Speaker 1: maintainers literally standing by our major switches, our major interlockings
Speaker 1: to constantly de ice. But we got all the snow
Speaker 1: by running service yesterday right through the system. We got
Speaker 1: the snow off of the third rail. We've been maximizing
Speaker 1: our use of diesel engines on the commuter rails which
Speaker 1: don't depend on the third rail, and we're going to
Speaker 1: keep at it. So those are their new challenges brought
Speaker 1: on by icing, especially for the bus system, which is
Speaker 1: one hundred percent chain that all the wheels are chained.
Speaker 1: But we're going to keep managing through.
Speaker 2: Can I ask one non storm question?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: Yeah. What is so fascinating is you've been very vocal
Speaker 2: in your support of our new mayor, and you've also
Speaker 2: said that we need a lot of study of free buses.
Speaker 2: Give us an update on how close we are to
Speaker 2: free bus service of the MT You.
Speaker 1: Know today is today's really about the muscling through the storm, honestly, Sean.
Speaker 1: But but you know, I'll just say this is that
Speaker 1: the mayor, the new Mayor Mamdani, is very pro transit,
Speaker 1: and I welcome that. I've also made clear that, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, if we're going to talk about something as
Speaker 1: radical and as as impactful as making a whole section
Speaker 1: of our system free, we need to do a ton
Speaker 1: of study and it's not a flip the switch type thing.
Speaker 1: So well, I'm sure that you know the governor who
Speaker 1: is leading, uh you know, the with her state of
Speaker 1: the state message, making a lot of investments, but also
Speaker 1: mindful of the we've brought the MT eight back to
Speaker 1: financial stability under Hocal's leadership, and we don't want to
Speaker 1: mess with that. So we'll be moving methodically under Governor
Speaker 1: Hockel on addressing this idea.
Speaker 2: Amid this storm. Thank you, for the conversation for General
Speaker 2: Leebert is with an MTA chair and CEO as well