NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Congestion Pricing Data and a Look Inside New York City’s Fragile Subway System

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

WNYC’s Janae Pierre and Clayton Guse dig into how New York City’s new congestion pricing tolls are impacting travel patterns across the city. Plus, WNYC’s Stephen Nessen goes underground for a closer look at the fragile network that power’s New York City’s subways.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. Congestion pricing is just over a week old, and there are early signs that it's accomplishing its main goal, reducing gridlock in Manhattan. WMYC's Transportation and Infrastructure Editor Clayton Gusa joins me to dig into how the new tolls are impacting travel patterns across the city. So Clayton, congestion pricing launched on January 5th, and as we know, it charges a $9 toll to most drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street. Now, the idea is to dissuade people from driving in the busiest parts of the city. Is that really happening? So we have some very early data from the MTA kind of analyzing the first week of the toll's impact, and it chose, yeah, it is to a degree.

MTA says compared to a similar week last January, the amount of gridlock in Manhattan is down 7%. That equates to about 43,000 fewer cars entering Manhattan below 60th Street every single day. And 7% might not seem like a lot, but the MTA, you know, and a lot of traffic analysts say that's the difference between gridlock and free-flowing traffic. And they're noticing some very kind of interesting trends at specific places. Travel times in the Lincoln Tunnel, down by nearly 40%. In the Holland Tunnel, last week, cars were moving about 60% faster than they usually do, which is just incredible. We're also seeing some changes on the northbound avenues. Traffic's moving about 20% faster.

Southbound avenues, about the same. So, again, really, really early, this is historically a slower travel period of the year, January. We'll see what happens once the spring kicks in, but it's really interesting. the MTA celebrating this as an early win. Yeah, for sure. And this is only week one. So that's the data. And the MTA says there is indeed less traffic. But how does it actually feel on Manhattan Street since the tolls launch? I know just being on the sidewalks here of our office, where we sit in Soho on Varick Street, it looks completely different. Yeah, just looking outside of our newsroom, it's something that everyone's remarking on. And Verick, it's just north of the entrance of the Holland Tunnel. And every night, you know, you see the traffic.

traffic cards, honking cars, insane gridlock that we've always dealt with. That's disappeared. It's kind of... It's kind of peaceful. It's very peaceful. It's completely gone. You're seeing some less gridlock in places like Canal Street, FDR drive during evening rush hour, usually bottleneck just a complete mess, free-flowing, or at least more free flowing in a lot of parts of the day. We have the data, but the vibe. As a pedestrian, and for a lot of drivers, is much improved early on. And finally, Clayton, do we have signs that the new tolls are pushing people towards mass transit? Because I'm wondering, are they taking the subways instead of driving into the city? I mean, we're not necessarily seeing that, but, you know, 43,000 fewer drivers on the street.

Feels like a lot of cars, but it's actually, you know, just over 1% of the daily ridership that the subways handle. So we might not even notice if it does or how it does the MTA. hopes that who they're dissuading is not, you know, people taking really essential trips. They're hoping that people are turning to mass transit after discretionary trips when they already have the option to take mass transit in the city. That's a big part of the idea. But just some early conversations with drivers we've had, their opinion shifting a little bit. You know, everyone's upset about a $9 toll, but no one's upset when you can actually get around driving Manhattan without gridlock. It's kind of the point. What's really interesting is in Stockholm, Sweden 20 years ago,

they launched a similar congestion crisis program. Drivers were very against it. But then they held a referendum after six months saying, okay, should we make this permanent? We'll hold a vote. One with an overwhelming majority, once people saw the impact. So the advocates of this program are hoping that a similar trend happens here.

That's WMYC's Transportation and Infrastructure Editor Clayton Gusa. You can read more of our coverage on congestion pricing at our news site Got the Mist. Now that we have the MTA's data on the first week of its congestion pricing program, we take a look at what that money will be used for. What we do know is that New York City subway system is being steered by technology nearly a century old, along with a lot of hope. More on the system's fragile network after the break.

Last month, an electrical room that powers the subways in downtown Brooklyn exploded. on several lines were brought to a halt, and thousands of riders were stranded for hours. Without major investment in the subway-strained electrical systems, transit officials warned that incidents like this will become more common. WMYC's Stephen Nesson has more on the fragile network that powers New York City subways. On December 11th, on a rainy Wednesday, a packed F-Train in downtown Brooklyn leaves the Bergen Street station. But seconds later, it loses power and grinds to a halt.

I have no idea what's happening, but, you know, obviously we'll get you guys into the station as soon as we possibly can. Thank you for being patient. I don't know what else to say. I'm so sorry. Without electricity, there is no air conditioning inside the car. In videos shot by trapped riders, you can hear people complaining about missed dinner reservations. It's amazing, and I'm upset because it's so hard to get into.

One man says he plays bass in the orchestra for the Broadway music. musical elf and is supposed to be performing at this very moment. They're panicking right now. 1,500 people are sitting there waiting for the show to start. 20 minutes go by. The operator comes back on the intercom, giving riders a sign of hope. I'm going to try again to see if the train moves. Just hold on to something in case it jerks back.

I don't know if it's going to work, but it's going to The train whirrs and hums and then falls silent again. I tried. I'm sorry. That laughter soon turns to anguish. Two hours later, firefighters arrive to evacuate the trapped riders. Some swear they're done with the MTA as they emerge from an underground ladder to a pounding rain. Oh, my God.

What in the... What the hell? Incidents like this happen because the MTA relies on technology that predates World War II. Here's MTA chair, Jano Lieber, speaking later that week. We cannot put off investing in these antiquated elements of our system, like the substation that blew up. In that image, you see the door that got blown off the hinges. I am blue in the face talking about the importance of state of good repair.

The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. What the MTA does know, is that it is one of 77 substations previously identified as being in poor or marginal condition. The MTA wants to spend $2 billion to upgrade its power system, but it needs the state to help pay for it. In the meantime, the trains run with a patchwork of aging equipment made up of parts from companies that are no longer in business. That forces MTA workers to scour eBay and decommission power plants for old parts. One of those substations is here in Harlem near 141st Street. Marked by a yellow door in the sidewalk, it sits 40 feet underground.

To get in, you need a special key, and on the day I visit, that key is missed. You're on the way back. That emergency. Okay. It's not like a tool that you could just pick up at Home Depot that opens these things. That's a special key. and our guide. After five minutes, another worker shows up and unlocks the door that leads to a ladder. Down several flights to the substation. You can hear the humming of electricity. Don't touch.

Everything is safe, but don't walk into anything and don't try to touch anything. In this dingy, subterranean bunker, there are several massive grayish green boxes, the size of small shipping containers. that convert power from Con Edison's grid to electricity that can be used to move subway trains. The MTA has a substation about every half mile along its subway lines. This particular facility powers trains crossing from Harlem to the Bronx on the two line.

But it's not exactly state-of-the-art. All right, they're from 1969, and what happened in 1969? We land on the moon. The electrical current from Con Edison's grid is AC, alternating current. And sometimes it isn't fully converted to the type that's needed to power Subway's electrified third rail. That's DC, direct current.

Newer train cars are designed to just shut down if there's not fully converted power. And that has happened once in a while. We have 1969 technology for power and 2025 trains. They're not mixing to weather well. There's other equipment down here that's also hanging by a thread. These are transformers. They get cooled by water. The transformers help increase or decrease the voltage coming from Con Ed,

and they have their own issues. The pipes are from 1969 and they corrode. The problem is, is the pipes are at the inside. They're degrading as fast as the outside. So we're all hoping that the stuff down on the inside is still in great condition. Modern transformers are cooled by fans, not water, which may have been the standard when astronaut Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, but can be a hazard now.

There's other hazards here too. There are about a dozen circuit breakers, which look like a larger version of what you might find in your basement. If someone throws a shopping card on the tracks, which happens frequently, they overload and explode. When that happens, the breakers spray molten copper against the wall. They're also surrounded by asbestos to prevent any fires. Then there's the black rotary phone in the corner.

It's the only way for workers down here to communicate with the outside world. There's no cell service. You know the new kids that come on this job, they don't know how to dial that. Facilities like this one can cost $50 million to upgrade. And while the MTA has identified which locations to upgrade first, without more money coming from the state,

it won't have enough for all of its projects. The agency won't say if new substations are on the chopping block, but without more power, the agency can't run more trains, or even the new modern ones, it's already ordered. That's WMYC's Stephen Nesson. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC.

Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jenei Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.