Anastasi Sharp The Compelling Communicator Fall 2019 Professor Visconti
MEMORANDUM
TO: MTA Team FROM: John McKay, MTA Executive Officer for Corporate Communications, Marketing and Branding DATE: September 17th, 2019 RE: OnBoard 2030: Let’s Imagine a Fast Subway in a Faster Future How long is the New York minute? 60 seconds? 30 seconds? It’s different for everyone. One thing is for sure: that minute is getting shorter by the minute as customer expectations change in our fast-paced world. You make us better and faster than ever I’m proud to have you on our team because you are part of the reason our on-time performance reached a new high in June. We achieved this in spite of operating the sixth busiest metro system in the world, 24 hours a day. Like our city, our subway is one of the few that never sleeps. But we can always do better to fight our greatest and oldest enemy: delays. What we’re doing now to reduce delays The Subway Action Plan is our major project right now. The objectives are: • Expediting signal repairs • Sealing water leaks • Cleaning stations • Installing emergency care units These repairs will keep us in step with today’s pace. But how do we stay on time when the world gets faster and the New York Minute gets shorter? Our plan to reduce delays in the future
The pace our customers will demand will be faster, and their tolerance for delays will be shorter. This is why we propose OnBoard, an initiative we are launching in January 2020. We partnered with Lions Group to identify the underlying causes of delays on the subway and the best long-term solutions. We chose from the winners of our Genius Transit Challenge, in which teams submitted proposals to innovate our system, and we plan to roll out these changes alongside the Subway Action Plan with goals that anticipate the MTA in 2030. Here are the causes of delay we identified and the planned solutions
Cause of Delay
Scheduled Repairs
Solutions
•
•
Overcrowding
•
•
Act on Bechtel Innovations’ proposal to build robots to repair our tunnel infrastructure during small and unusual windows of work time to minimize outages As we discontinue old cars, we will replace them with those proposed by the CRRC MA, which will have modular designs that can be replaced and updated easily.
Implement Craig Avedisan’s plan to increase train capacity by programming different sections of doors to open depending on the size of the platform of each station. Update our signalling system using Asnaldo STS & Thales’ proposal, which will allow more trains to travel safely and simultaneously on the same track
New York has always been a city of dreams and aspirations. We enable those dreams by connecting our city, and teams like yours make all the difference. But those dreams can only come true if we can get our job done within the fleeting New York Minute. The possibilities of The Subway Action Plan and OnBoard 2030 excite me, and I look forward to your ideas as we venture into our shared future. Gratefully yours, John
References MTA New York City Transit Announces Continued Progress on Subway Action Plan. (2019, January 20). Retrieved 2019 2019, from www.mta.info: http://www.mta.info/press-release/nyc-transit/mta-new-york-city-transitannounces-continued-progress-subway-action-plan mtainfo. (2019, April 9). MTA Genius Transit Challenge Awards - Communications: Bechtel Innovation. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=37&v=BsgDtpfAbdI mtainfo. (2019, March 9). MTA Genius Transit Challenge Awards - Signaling: Ansaldo STS and Thales. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Sa2ksraa8 mtainfo. (2019, March 9). MTA Genius Transit Challenge Awards - Subway Cars: CRRC MA. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=33&v=ZtubvUm-biY Plitt, A. (2019, March 9). MTA announces 8 winners for its ‘genius’ transit challenge. Retrieved 2019 2019, from Curbed: https://ny.curbed.com/2018/3/9/17101118/mta-genius-design-challengenyc-subway
Richard, K. S. (2019, April 10). The Busiest Subway Systems in the World. Retrieved September 2019, from ThoughtCo: https://www.thoughtco.com/busiestsubways-1435753 Wanek-Libman, M. (2019, July 12). MTA subway performance hits bar it hasn’t seen in nearly six years. Retrieved September 2019, from Mass Transit: https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/article/21088297/mta-subwayperformance-hits-bar-it-hasnt-seen-in-nearly-six-years