Purpose

To determine the extent of implementation of the five recommendations included in our initial audit report, Subway Service Diversions for Maintenance and Capital Projects (2010-S-34).

Background

Our initial report, issued on July 29, 2011, determined that while Transit has a number of policies and procedures for managing and controlling subway diversions, more needed to be done. Specifically, the prior audit found that diversion costs were not adequately monitored, and daily work on diversions often started late and ended early. As a result, Transit could not justify why diversion costs exceeded budgets, and unproductive time associated with the late starts and early end times ranged from 10 to 27 percent. In addition, the public was not adequately informed about diversions, shuttle bus service was not planned using current ridership data, and the budget for diversion advertisements to communicate information about planned service changes due to diversions appeared to be too low for a ridership of 2.3 billion annually.

Key Finding

• The MTA-Transit officials have made some progress in correcting the problems we identified. However, additional improvements are needed. Of the five prior audit recommendations, two were implemented, two were partially implemented, and one was not implemented.

Key Recommendation

• Officials are given 30 days after the issuance of the follow-up review to provide information on any actions that are planned to address the unresolved issues discussed in this review.