After escalating subway delays and disruptions – including a derailment that injured dozens – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency.
Cuomo pledged $1 billion for improvements and is moving to make it easier for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to buy equipment, The New York Times reported.
"The delays are maddening New Yorkers," Cuomo said in Manhattan after a special legislative session in Albany to solicit ideas to fix the antiquated subway system.
"They are infuriated by a lack of communication, unreliability, and now accidents. Just three days ago, we literally had a train come off the tracks. It's the perfect metaphor for the dysfunction of the entire system."
Straphangers, he confessed, "tweet nasty things about me all day."
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has quarreled with Cuomo over who should be held responsible for the subway's worsening condition, the Times reported – but praised the decision to hire Joseph Lhota as chairman of the MTA. Lhota, a Republican, was defeated by de Blasio in the mayoral election in 2013.
"The governor has made it clear he wants a new MTA, a new approach," Lhota said, the Times reported. "We know what we need to do. He mentioned the subway's aging signal system. We live in a digital age. Our signal system isn't even analog. It's mechanical."
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