NYC subway, bus service still plagued by delay-causing staff shortagesBy David Meyer
August 7, 2022
The MTA is still struggling to staff trains and buses a year after The Post and other outlets reported that a shortage of workers was driving train delays and cancellations, officials said.
New York City Transit President Rich Davey said in a memo on Friday that he plans to launch a “working group” to address ongoing challenges with “crew availability,” which according to MTA data caused a quarter of weekday train delays in June.
“The most important factor to increase service delivery is maintaining consistent and sufficient staffing,” Davey wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The Post.
The MTA’s operating workforce shrunk significantly in the depths of the COVID-19 crisis, when retirements soared and officials instituted a hiring freeze to offset revenue losses.
Officials have since hired more personnel, but the agency has yet to match the number of bus and train operators it had on payroll before the pandemic, a senior official said.
The agency will be fully staffed on buses by the end of the summer, and on trains by the beginning of 2023, the official said — later than had previously been disclosed.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/08/07/nyc-subway-bus-service-still-suffering-staff-shortages/
