Objective

To determine the extent of implementation of the six recommendations included in our initial audit report, Selected Aspects of Subway Station Safety (Report 2016-S-11), issued June 15, 2017.

About the Program

New York City Transit (Transit) is responsible for providing public transportation in New York City, carrying an average of 5.4 million passengers per day. Maintaining safety and cleanliness for the daily riders who use its 472 subway stations is one of Transit’s essential duties. Transit’s Division of Station Environment and Operations (Division) mission is to ensure “the cleanliness, maintenance, and safety” of subway stations. The Division has six operating units with 6,024 employees who maintain the safety and cleanliness of station areas such as stairs, platforms, mezzanines, and walkways.

The Division’s Operations Training Manual requires Station Supervisors (supervisors) to perform mandatory weekly station inspections and daily inspections for the top 25 slips, trips, and falls in subway stations. During the inspections, supervisors are to identify defects in need of repair (e.g., loose/missing handrails and stair treads, platform edges, uneven floor surfaces, holes, water conditions, clogged drains, broken wall and floor tiles, graffiti surfaces) along with ensuring the cleanliness of each station.

Subsequent to our initial audit, Transit replaced its Station Handheld Inspection Program system, previously used to report station defects, with the Infor Enterprise Asset Management system (EAM). The EAM is the reporting and tracking mechanism for all nonconformities (NCs) (formerly known as defects) and the recording tool for all station inspections. EAM is used by all supervisors and managers.

According to the Division’s Bulletin No. 034-19, dated August 27, 2019, NCs are grouped into five categories based on severity and amount of time to address them, ranging from Severity 1 – any catastrophic hazards that must be addressed within three hours and requires "6-wire" notification to Severity 5 – any non-safety project-type work requiring longer duration and planning to complete. These are entered into EAM by a manager or maintenance supervisor only. All signage NCs (including missing, damaged, vandalized, or incorrect messages) must be reported to the Office of Station Signage immediately either through the station signage web portal or by faxing a Signage Request form. 

The initial audit found that the Division often did not take sufficient and/or timely actions to identify and address safety-related defects. Auditors identified 66 defects, including 21 Priority A defects, as classified under the previous system (affects safety, security, and revenue-related issues and must be made safe within 24 hours), at 12 of the 25 subway stations we inspected. However, 20 of the 21 Priority A defects were not identified by supervisors during required station inspections within three days before and after our site visits. Once identified, defects were not always addressed within the required time frames.

Key Finding

We found that the MTA-Transit made progress in addressing the problems we identified in the initial audit report. Of the six audit recommendations, five were partially implemented and one was implemented.

Key Recommendation

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