Monday s decision to close the New York City subway one of the world s few round the clock transit systems during the snowstorm frustrated riders and puzzled some transportation experts.
The Straphangers Campaign a rider advocacy group called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to conduct a detailed review of its response similar to studies of how it reacted to previous major storms.
But Tom Prendergast chairman and chief executive of the MTA defended New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo s move which he said came at Mr. Prendergast s recommendation.
As blizzard forecasts looked increasingly dire on Monday Mr. Prendergast said he became worried about the storm s danger. The system was shut down late Monday and began to reopen around 9 a.m. Tuesday.
In 2010 when Mr. Prendergast was running the MTA s New York City Transit division a winter storm that dumped about 2 feet of snow left more than 30 subway trains and about 600 city buses stuck stranding scores of passengers and crews.
That was starting to weigh on my mind he said in an interview Tuesday adding You put people at risk. They re on trains they could get stranded.
Shutting down only the aboveground portion of the subway system didn t seem feasible he said.
Subway workers didn t have limited schedules on standby for underground only service he said and it would have been cumbersome to coordinate truncated service while moving equipment inside tunnels to try to protect it from the elements.
You try to do two things and you can only do probably one well Mr. Prendergast said. Doing so was more than we wanted to take on.
The shutdown decision drew criticism from some former MTA officials and experts.
They ve always run the system in every snow storm before this said Peter Derrick a former MTA planner and a transit historian at New York University. There was never any question they would shut it down.
While the MTA said the shutdown was unprecedented in a snowstorm it halted service following the Sept. 11 2001 terrorist attacks and before Hurricane Irene and superstorm Sandy.
Mr. Prendergast said the storm s predicted 2 to 3 feet of snowfall wasn t his only concern. He was also worried about potentially hazardous winds and snow potentially falling at 2 or more inches an hour he said.
Other former MTA officials supported the shutdown given the potential threat to people s lives.
There is no doubt it was the right move said Elliot Sander who headed the MTA from 2007 to 2009.
Mr. Cuomo stood by the shutdown Tuesday. It was the right decision as was closing the roads given the information at hand a spokeswoman said.
The MTA wasn t the only agency to suspend service. In the New York City area the city s Transportation Department suspended Staten Island ferry service which has since resumed.
NJ Transit also shut down its light rail bus and commuter rail services ahead of the storm. They were expected to resume full service Wednesday.
The goal was to protect passengers and workers said Ronnie Hakim NJ Transit s executive director. Shutting down service also helped support a state travel ban by discouraging people from venturing out into the storm she said.
Safety trumps anything else really Ms. Hakim said.
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