ALBANY, NY (TIP): Gov. Andrew Cuomo is declaring a “state of emergency” for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to expedite repairs on what he called the “circulatory system” of New York, which he acknowledged Thursday, June 29, has experienced a “heart attack.”

At a Genius Transit Conference across the street from Penn Station — where an Amtrak train stalled due to a power outage Thursday morning — Cuomo said he will send $1 billion to the MTA, and he ordered new MTA chairman Joe Lhota to reorganize the agency.

A reorganization plan is due in 30 days, Cuomo said. A second plan from Lhota, detailing what equipment is needed, how much it’ll cost and how it can be acquired quickly, is due in 60 days, Cuomo said.

A third report, due in 90 days, will be conducted by the Public Service Commission and it will examine the related power failures at Penn Station. Cuomo said Con Edison, which delivers the power, and the MTA, which distributes it at the station, have been blaming each other in a “finger-pointing game.”

Cuomo said the PSC review will “identify the equipment, identify the responsibility,” for the outages. He warned: “If there is a power outage and if Con Ed is responsible, they are going to be fined heavily for the delay they have been causing New Yorkers and we’re going to do that immediately.”

The remarks come amid growing criticism of Cuomo’s oversight of the MTA. At Thursday’s conference, on a stage inside the Hammerstein Ballroom, Cuomo rattled off facts about the MTA and cast its current woes as the result of decisions that predate his arrival in the governor’s office in 2011.

Cuomo did not say where the $1 billion in additional money for the MTA would come from, and a spokesman for his office did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

“We know the system is decaying and we know the system is decaying rapidly,” Cuomo said. “I think of it as a heart attack. It happens all of a sudden, and the temptation is to say ‘well, something must have just caused it.’ No, a lifetime caused it; bad habits caused it; lack of exercise caused it; smoking caused it; cholesterol caused it. This has been caused over decades, we understand that.”

Lhota said he had no details about the source of Cuomo’s $1 billion funding commitment. “I heard it a few seconds before you heard it,” he said. But he brushed aside a question about whether that money will “offset” funds already earmarked for the MTA. “I don’t think the $1 billion is going to offset anything. The governor said he’s going to give us an additional billion dollars, an additional amount. That’s not an offset. That’s additional money.”

Lhota left open the possibility of reducing the subway’s 24-hour service, or instituting longer-term shutdowns in order to make repairs. “I am open to anything to get the system in a state of good repair and into the 21st Century,” he said. Lhota went on to say that the public may support moves like that if they were told of the benefits. “Let’s talk about what the benefits are going to be. Let’s show them what it is. And hold me and hold all of us accountable.”

(Source: Politico New York)