NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg appeared live today on WABC Eyewitness News with David Novarro to discuss the impact of the winter storm on regional public transportation service.
A transcript of the interview appears below.
David Novarro: Joining us now Interim President of New York City Transit, Sarah Feinberg. At the top of the show, we said that outdoor subway service is suspended. Buses, we've actually seen video of it, still running. So what's the latest?
Sarah Feinberg: That's right. So outdoor service is still suspended. Obviously, we want to get it back started as soon as we can, don't have any announcements on that at this point but we're keeping a close eye on things and want to get that moving as soon as it's safe to do so. And buses are continuing to run, you know, we've had to obviously cancel some routes and we've got, you know, a couple buses that get stuck here and there, and we need to tow them out. But generally, you know, the Department of Sanitation is doing a good job, we're blowing a lot of snow and so the roads are relatively passable. We are trying to get through it and we're just trying to move as many people as we can.
Novarro: Throughout all of this underground service has continued, that's been a lifeline for a lot of people. How, what kind of ridership are we looking at this point?
Feinberg: Very low ridership today. You know, I think today's one of those days when the only folks who are out are essential workers or someone who had to run to a truly essential errand like going to a doctor's appointment or a pharmacy. So we're grateful for that. We don't want a lot of people out today. Obviously, we want people to stay home, that's the safest place they can possibly be. So ridership way, way down, but we're trying to move everyone we can and keep everybody safe.
Novarro: Yeah, the big question of course for commuters is when will everything be back up and running? I know a lot of that you can't tell, really depending on the weather, but what should people know going into the evening hours?
Feinberg: Well look, we know that the storm is supposed to slow down in the coming hours this evening. It's going to continue to snow overnight but nowhere, supposedly, nowhere close to what we've been seeing the last several hours. So, you know, if we can get things to slow down a little bit, clean up a little bit, obviously we would love to have much more regular service tomorrow. But this has been such a wallop of a storm I don't want to predict it until we actually see the snow stop.
Novarro: Thank you, Sarah. Sarah Feinberg, interim president of the New York City Transit system. We appreciate it.