Here’s your chance to whine about the MTA and (maybe) get results

August 16, 2019 Noah Goldberg

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

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Hooray! Rejoice. The Riders Alliance wants to hear you (yes, you!) complain about the subway.

Why? Because it’s that time of the season. His Holiness The Governor, the Ever-Honorable Andrew Cuomo will be releasing the MTA’s five-year capital spending plan in September, and the Riders Alliance wants to make sure that everyday New Yorkers’ complaints, critiques and remonstrances are heard. The plan, which will be in the tens of billions of dollars, probably around $30 billion, will include a projected $15 billion from recently passed congestion pricing, according to the Daily News.

But enough with the big numbers. What this really is is an opportunity to gripe and grumble while a nice person from the Riders Alliance stands next to you and takes you seriously and asks you follow up questions like, “And how did that make you feel when you found out the 4 train would be running local between Atlantic Avenue and Utica Avenue?”

Volunteers with the Riders Alliance will be fanning out to subway and bus stops throughout the next month conducting the survey, and since the G train isn’t coming for another 12 minutes, you might as well tell them how you really feel.

Have you always wanted to grab Gov. Cuomo by the lapels and just really lay into him about that one time he (yes — he’s in charge of the MTA after all, not that guy stationary-biking next to you at the YMCA running for president) allowed a massive snake to curl up and get cozy on the L train.

That’s probably not the substantive stuff that the Riders Alliance is looking for, but they might not stop you from going in and taking your best shot — so why not try?

They want to hear New Yorkers’ top priorities for what needs to be fixed — and once they finish their month-long polling process, they’re going to drop a fat stack of papers (they haven’t quite figured out how the recommendations will be compiled, but we’re imagining a big stack of papers) on the guvnah’s desk before he announces his plan.

Do you want to make your voice heard, but are terrified of human contact? That’s fine, because the Riders Alliance also has a survey on the internets that allows you to upload photos of specific issues you have with the MTA (overcrowded trains, broken elevators, etc.). There’s also a text component. If you want to take the survey by text, just send “subway” to 52886.