NY MTA Bus Command Center Already Falling Apart

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority spent $86 million on a new state-of-the art bus command center in June 2019 that still sits vacant because the roof leaks, the heating system is faulty, and the bathrooms are bug-infested, The New York Post reported.

The Brooklyn facility was supposed to replace an older one across the street and serve as a “war room” for bus dispatchers, who have refused to work there until the problems are fixed, the newspaper reported.

Some dispatchers worked there for a few months last winter but left when the heat didn’t work and the building’s electrical system couldn’t handle the space heaters.

The building was slated to cost $55 million and be completed in 2017, but the budget and timeline were both exceeded, ultimately finishing in June 2019 at $86 million due to issues with the building’s drainage and sprinkler systems, The Post said.

With all the issues, MTA rep Aaron Donovan told the newspaper that the command center will open “in the first half of next year.”

This is as the MTA borrowed $2.9 billion from the Federal Reserve's emergency credit line for states and local governments, saying it needed to close budget gaps that were created by the pandemic.

This is the second time the MTA turned to the central bank as it faces a steep drop in ridership from Covid-19, Bloomberg reported.

A broke transit agency mismanaging its projects and borrowing from the Fed is a recipe for disaster that makes waste of taxpayer funds.

The #WasteOfTheDay is presented by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.